Only a few days after purchasing a lion to keep in his backyard, a man was mauled to death and devoured by the animal.
On Thursday, the predator viciously attacked a resident of Najaf, southern Iraq, before devouring the majority of his body.
“A citizen was attacked by a lion in his own garden today in the city of Kufa in Najaf and died instantly,” Najaf Police spokesperson Mufid Tahir told local news outlet Rudaw.
He went on to say that the lion had to be killed since it had consumed a significant amount of the man’s body and would not leave the remains.
According to Tahir, the victim, 50-year-old Aqil Fakhr al-Din, had been keeping lions and other wild creatures in his garden for a number of years.
However, on Thursday, the predator ambushed its trainer without warning, then viciously mauled and ate him.
According to local TV sources, one of the victim’s neighbors allegedly stepped in and used a Kalashnikov gun to shoot the lion, killing it with seven bullets.
However, it was too late for al-Din by the time the lion was killed. Due to the severity of his injuries, he did not survive despite being sent right away to Al-Sadr Medical City Hospital in Najaf.
A formal investigation into the incident’s circumstances has apparently been launched, and graphic photos showed the man drenched in blood as he lay on a hospital bed.
Social media users are also discussing how al-Din managed to retain the untamed beast on his land after seeing a video of the dead lion in the garden.
Local sources state that the victim bought the lion with the goal of domesticating and taming it.Due to years of violence,
lax enforcement, and a strong demand for rare species, illegal wildlife trafficking is still a major issue in Iraq.
Targeting birds and foxes from the far-flung highlands of the Kurdistan Region as well as falcons from the southern plains, poachers and smugglers frequently take advantage of the nation’s lax regulations.
Iraq is still a major destination for the smuggling of exotic animals for the illicit market as well as the export of domestic species,
Even after adopting the Convention on the Protection of Animals in 2014, which attempts to limit the international wildlife trade
The terrible event in Iraq follows a zookeeper who entered a lion’s cage to “impress his girlfriend” in December and was subsequently killed by the lions and eaten alive.