The Story of Our Lions

Today I worked closely with Marijam in working with the mountain lions (Sheba, Tonka, and Sasha), our African lion (Samson), and our hippo (Hannah) for a majority of the day. While doing so I learned a more detailed history of how the FFA came about housing each of them.

We started the day by prepping food for the lions. Each of the mountain lions gets one pound of beef and two fish oil pills. We break the pills open so that the oil mixes with the blood and they will be more likely to take it. We also defrosted four pounds of beef and turkey for Samson, carefully fitting his medication into the pieces.

Once we got up to Samson's enclosure we began to feed him. Since we must monitor what he eats and ensure that he gets all of his medication each day we hand feed him (using a small stick). I was unable to get pictures during this because I was the one actually feeding him! Once he has had enough he will simply stand up and walk away, lounging toward the back of his enclosure, watching the cows. We tend to try and get him to eat four pounds at a time, but more often than not he will stop at three to three and a half.

Samson was originally supposed to be a circus animal, but when the trainers saw that he was born with a form a dwarfism which would lead to medical problems they wanted to kill him. The FFA saved him instead, and this is where he has been for the last 11 years!

Once we finished feeding Samson we moved to the mountain lions, each of which are in their own separate enclosure. First, we went to Sheba. All three are trained to go into their smaller area to eat while we go into the rest of the enclosure to clean their messes. Sheba often runs in too quickly for us to even get her food in there first! She is also the friendliest of the three. From what the FFA knows, she had the smoothest start to life out of all three. She was being smuggled across the border as a cub and was confiscated and transported to the FFA where she has lived ever since.

The other two, Tonka and Sasha, are more nervous, so I was more focused on quickly cleaning and getting out of their enclosures than taking pictures! Tonka was confiscated when an elderly woman took him to the vet since he seemed ill. She had been keeping him as a pet, not realizing it is illegal, and was not feeding him the proper diet. This was resulting in him going blind. However, he was rescued early enough that the FFA was able to fix his diet and reverse the blindness.  

Sasha was supposed to be a circus animal like Samson, but was found and confiscated by the Fish and Game Committee. However, they used her as a practice animal for teaching new workers how to take down a wild animal in order to transport them safely. This led to serious mistrust in humans. However, she is slowly starting to trust the good nature of the FFA and is beginning to let us come close to her, and even give her the occasional scratch on the back!

Once done with the lions we went to feed Hannah. She was found tied up in the back of a dentists house. She was severely dried out and was very under fed. The first thing she did when they brought her to the FFA was go into her pool, where she stayed for several days. 

While all of these animals were lucky enough to be rescued and taken to the FFA to live out their lives peacefully, one must always remember that this is not the ideal placement for them. We need to continue to educate the public so that unfit and unsafe situations decrease.