Phnom Penh: Unconfirmed photos and videos are spreading across social media after a male lion was spotted walking down a city street- confirmed as 306.
This has not been verified, but is highly likely to be Hei Man (Dark Mind), a ‘pet lion’ confiscated by the authorities in late June, and later returned after a strong campaign on social media.
At the time, the owner was reported as signing a contract, “promising to meet the conditions related to the techniques that are appropriate and the technical standards of the living environment for the lion and safety. The owner will assume the risks to himself and be responsible.”
Such an incident was already feared, and the story went global at the beginning of July.
EDIT: A witness driving past took shots of the lion being recaptured and taken back into the villa.
According to a witness, the lion jumped out of the garden, onto a car and then went for a stroll down the street.
UPDATE: Chinese language websites say the lion owner claims that local staff colluded in a blackmail plot. He also claimed the video was leaked after he refused to pay. It was added that he will build a bigger fence, apologizes for anyone scared by seeing the top predator of the African Savannah wandering up St. 306, and promises that this won’t happen again.
Resident who lives nearby here: People are moving out of the area because of this lion. Because it was obvious it was going to jump the 1 metre high garden fence. He NEVER fixed the fences. You need an 8 metre fence to hold a lion. The community has been let down by the response over this lion and if the lion is allowed to continue living in the city, someone will die. The residents who saw this first hand tried to warn everyone, but were ignored and forced to accept living with a dangerous wild animal. The Chinese is deluded and thinks he can control the lion, but clearly he cannot. Lions are wild animals, and eventually turn on those around them due to their instincts. The lion must be removed to a secure location for the safety of the community. We were lucky today and this should be seen as a warning to do something.
A Lion is a Lion (as in wild animal Lion) and remains a Lion. This animal got the shitty end of the stick by staying with his chinese (no matter what other nation , too) owner instead of growing up in his natural habitat. Releasing him now into Nature will simply kill the animal because it cannot find a sofa to lounge on or getting fed. Staying with his owner in the current enviroment also obviously doesn’t work,either. This shit shouldn’t be tolerated at all.
It’s obviously very cruel to the lion. The villa is small, despite the crap that was reported about him living in luxury. A dog would find that villa small. Bear in mind the lion cannot go for walks on a leash like a dog, so is basically in an unnatural jail. He has other animals he treats cruelly too…an ostrich and raccoons which are in small cages. There was also a fully grown goat but maybe the lion killed it. He is a cruel owner who only thinks of the status that these animals bring. So there’s this cruelty aspect that it’s easy to be outraged about…. But really that’s his business. The bigger issue is community safety. He is putting innocent people at risk of lion attack. Once I saw the lion watching people walking down the street through the glass. They had no idea a lion was up there and stalking them. This is completely unfair for the people of phnom penh. He could easily pounce on people walking on the street from above, as he did when he landed on the car to escape. We all need protection from this man and his lion.