New Gaza Lion Cubs Provide Media With Another Opportunity to Rip into Israel
David Lange
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Some lion cubs have been born in Gaza, and AP are using the story to rip Israel.
Three day-old lion cubs were on display Saturday in a cardboard box at a Gaza City zoo, a rare joyous sight for children and adults alike, just days after Israeli aircraft pounded the territory and Gaza militants fired hundreds of rockets at Israel.
Veterinarian Mahmoud al-Sultan said each cub weighed about 700 grams. He said he felt lucky the birth was successful despite the deafening sound of constant explosions during three days of fighting. The cubs’ mother had suffered miscarriages in the past, said al-Sultan.
Loud noise “causes stress to the wild animals, especially the lions, whose roars get higher, and they keep moving in a circular way inside the cage,” he said.
The cubs were born on Friday, several hours apart, and five days after an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire halted the fighting between Israel and Islamic Jihad militants. Forty-nine Palestinians, including 17 children, were killed and several hundred were injured in the fighting.
Shocks from war aren’t the only threat to animals. Gaza is impoverished, with double-digit unemployment, largely as a result of a border blockade Egypt and Israel imposed after Hamas militants took control of the territory 15 years ago.
In the past, a number of animals in small private Gaza zoos starved to death or were killed in the long-running conflict, which included four Israel-Hamas wars and countless smaller skirmishes.
And not just AP; MEMO are already lining up to blame Israel for their impending death, for another reason:
Zoo workers in the Gaza Strip are trying hard to keep three lion cubs alive after their mothers refused to let them suckle, Anadolu Agency reports.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Abdulhadi Hamude, one of the employees of Terfihiyye Zoo in Gaza, said that lionesses in captivity often refuse to breastfeed their cubs which puts the lives of the newborns in danger.
He said 80 cubs have died in the past seven years after their mothers refused to let them suckle or ate them a few hours after they were born.
The official went on to say that a lion cub needs to suckle more or less every hour.
The staff also tried alternatives for mother’s milk, but it did not work.
“We brought cats, dogs and sheep milk. However, it did not work and the cubs died after hours or days.”
Hamude underlined that lion cubs need some vaccines and drugs a week after they are born, but the vaccines and drugs imported to Gaza, which is under blockade, are of poor quality, unlike those used abroad.
The reason for that is the rising prices of other quality medicines and the difficulty in transporting medicines to the region due to the Israeli blockade, he stated.
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He went on to say that animals also get disturbed by the sounds of explosion during Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave.
Of course, poverty in Gaza, war and import restrictions have not been the main reasons for animals in Gaza dying in the past. The animals were horrifically abused and kept in terrible conditions, in some cases just to demonize Israel – facts these media outlets fail to mention.
Update: This photo on Quds News Network is a reminder of the terrible conditions these poor cubs are up against – the real reason they likely won’t survive, which is not related to Israel.
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David Lange
