Abandoned by her owner, fleeing the bombardments, Kiara, a six-month-old black panther, has found a place in a refuge for wild animals in the Loire.
She is slowly recovering after escaping the trade in exotic animals in a Ukraine at war.
This panther had “a fairly dramatic life course since she was born in Ukraine during the war.
So she has already experienced the bombings.
She was born on the spot and was illegally detained by an individual, ”explains to AFP Jean-Christophe Gérard, veterinarian at the animal park of Saint-Martin-la-Plaine (Loire) in front of the cage of the animal.
The bright green-eyed, shiny-haired panther was just a few weeks old when it was handed over to Kyiv to the Wild Animal Rescue Center, a wildlife rescue organization.
Previously, its owner had fled under the bombardments, abandoning the animal, explains Jean-Christophe Gérard.
The organization then contacted the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which placed her in a zoo in Poznan, Poland, where she remained for a few weeks to receive care and recover from her long journey since. Ukraine.
Then Tonga Terre d'Accueil, a refuge for seized or abandoned wild animals, collected Kiara on December 23 in its center near the zoological space of Saint-Martin-la-Plaine.
The team welcomes “exploited and mistreated” wild animals there and takes care of them while looking for a permanent shelter.
Keira spends a lot of time tucked away in a corner of her cage and only eats when she is alone.
" It's a baby "
"We're going to leave her alone for a bit, until she gets used to it, because we see that she's a baby.
She experienced many events, changes in the people who took care of her.
So all that is very traumatic for animals which despite everything, even if they were born in Europe, they are still animals with a wild instinct.
We have to let her settle down, get used to us, get used to her new environment," explains Jean-Christophe Gérard, who occasionally manages to play with her through the fine grids of its cage.
“After this period of adaptation, we will introduce her to another little panther so that they can live together, grow together, play together, live their panther life.
Then we will work on her placement”: “we hope that she will leave in the near future” to “live a quiet life in a place that can meet her needs”, he continues.
Since the war began in February 2022, IFAW says it has helped “countless wild animals in Ukraine” by providing emergency aid, purchasing animal food, such as cat formula, and working with partners to facilitate evacuations, where possible.
