“I have raised more than 40 lions at Mbidi, and my wife more than 35, one has to ask where has all the lions gone?” he asks.

Mr Wagenaar, who was very popular with the public, says Ms Tanya Swanepoel, who had to receive skin grafts after having been mauled by Mbidi’s cheetah, Romeo, in December last year, was attacked because she was allowed to caress the animal’s paws.

“Any well trained animal handler will know that touching the organ with which a cat hunts, is looking for trouble,” he told the Observer on Wednesday.

“I personally warned Mr Fourie that he was employing inexperienced handlers, and foresaw that this conduct would result in tragedy.”

John says he heard that all the chicken supply contracts that he had negotiated, had been cancelled and he believes Mr Bigelow’s allegation that the animals are malnourished and underfed.

“I’ve seen pictures of animals raised by me at Mbidi, and from the pictures I can definitely conclude that they are in a malnourished condition,” he said.

When he left, Mr Wagenaar says he again warned Mr Fourie of the impeding danger to the public, but Mr Fourie declined John’s offer to train the handlers.

“I will gladly return to Mbidi once the new owners take over, and help with getting the animals back into shape, I will however never sit foot on that farm again, for as long as Mr Fourie is the owner,” he declared.

Mr Wagenaar now own his own tiger sanctuary and says he has always been against breeding lions for profit, and that he had made that abundantly clear to Mr Fourie.

Since his departure at Mbidi, he has received written complaints from concerned members of the public, about the condition of Mbidi’s cats.

Update: Jugomaro pity’s Mbidi cats

Video: US volunteer details Mbidi animal abuse