Following the outrage caused by the news of a white tiger cub being abandoned on a street in suburban Athens, Jean Jacques Lesueur, the founder of the Attica Zoological Park, denounced the illegal animal trade.
"It is clear that this is illegal animal trade. Someone had it, could not take care of it because it is paralysed and thought of leaving it outside the Attica Zoological Park," said Lesueur when speaking to Alpha.
The rare white tiger cub was found under trash bin in a street near the zoo, about 25 kilometres from Athens centre.
"We were informed by the waste collection service that they saw an animal. She is a small female tiger, female... From time to time they leave turtles, rabbits and guinea pigs outside the Attica Zoological Park. Domestic animals. But a tiger?," continued the founder of the park.
"The abandoned white tiger is about 3-4 months old and cannot walk as it still has difficulty crawling with the front limbs. It's in bad shape. It's not a Bengal or Sumatran, it's a white tiger," said Lesueur.
"It's a tiger mutation, which you usually find in circuses. They are not animals you find in nature, they are products of mutation. This tiger will reach a length of two metres and a weight of 200 kilograms," he added.
See the video from Proto Thema:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJwZSYQpP7k&ab_channel=ProtoThema
"The biggest illegal trade in the world is the trade in wild animals," the zoo founder added, noting that the tiger "didn't drink milk, eat canned food, or drink water. All she eats is ground red meat."
"The one who had her did not understand what care means, they didn't know anything. We are taking care of her and we are waiting for them to tell us what to do with her. This animal will not live unfortunately…”.
For her part, the president of the Panhellenic Philanthropic Federation, Irini Molfesi, spoke about the issue, saying that the animal "passed under the nose of the controlling authorities in a strange way," adding that "there are rich people who want to have wild animals in their mansions".
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