Faisalabad: A wildlife officer was injured after being attacked by a pet lion at Jalvi Darbar in Faisalabad late Saturday night, marking the third such incident involving captive lions in Punjab within a week.
According to reports, a pair of pet lions was being kept at the residence of the administrators of Jalvi Darbar. Upon receiving information, a wildlife department team arrived to take the animals into custody.
The team tranquillised both lions and entered the cage to shift them. However, one of the lions had not been fully sedated and attacked the staff while shifting.
Wildlife officer Ahsan Mehboob sustained head and facial injuries in the attack and was immediately shifted to a hospital, where his condition was reported to be stable.
Following the incident, the wildlife rescue team returned the lion to its cage. Authorities are expected to rescue the animal again from the owner’s custody today.
This is the third reported lion attack in Punjab in recent days. Earlier, two children were seriously injured in separate incidents in Lahore.
In the first case, an eight-year-old girl, Rabia, was attacked by a pet lioness in the Bhekewal Pind area. In another incident, an eight-year-old boy lost his arm after being attacked by a pet lion in the Sabzazar area.
According to police and hospital officials, the boy, identified as Wajid, was playing near the cage of a lion kept at the Dolla Breeding Farm House when the animal suddenly attacked him, biting off his arm.
The injured child was initially taken to a private hospital and later shifted to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, where a five-member medical board has been constituted to oversee his treatment.
Hospital authorities confirmed that although the boy’s arm had to be amputated, his condition is stable and out of danger.
These alarming incidents have raised serious concerns over the illegal keeping of unlicensed lions in residential areas, which officials and residents describe as a major threat to public safety.