ast week, the news of a pet African lion escaping a house near Shah Di Khooi, Lahore, broke the Internet. CCTV footage showed the lion jumping over the wall and running off. It later attacked a woman and her two children.

The police arrested the owners who were found to have kept the lion without the requisite licence. They also took the animal to a wildlife park.

This wasn’t the first such incident reported in Lahore. In December last year, an adult lion had escaped from a house in Harbanspura, causing panic among the neighbours. Eventually, a security guard shot it down. Though no human was hurt, the incident alerted the authorities. In January, the Punjab Wildlife (Protection, Preservation, Conservation and Management) (Amendment) Act, 2025 was introduced which seeks to regulate ownership of big cats, among other things.

On February 2, a Jallo Wildlife Park employee was reported to have let a white Bengal tiger out, much to the horror of the visitors. Fortunately, no one was harmed. The animal was tranquilised and returned to its enclosure.

Earlier, a young man who wanted to make a TikTok video near a caged lion, at a breeder’s farm in Sabzazar, was mauled and badly injured by the animal. The Wildlife Department revoked the farm’s licence and launched........

© The News on Sunday