Lions, dogs and donkeys – A rescue chronicle

Pet owners and animal lovers were able to learn about some of the hardships animals encounter because of humans.
This was at the Animal Rescue Expo hosted in Bryanston on October 6 where attendees could buy items for their pets and spend time with their animal companions.

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Dean Bush, exhibiting at the Greyhound Welfare stall where he was joined by Sahara the greyhound and Alexei the borzoi, shared his reason for establishing the non-profit organisation 15 years ago. Bush saw the need for the organisation when he learned how sighthounds (greyhounds) were being forced into the world of race betting.
“The biggest problem in South Africa relating to breeds are with greyhounds and pitbulls – pitbulls for fighting, greyhounds for hunting,” Bush said. “Unfortunately, people around the world have used them for their ability to run. In a lot of Western countries, the dogs are used for racing, which has remained illegal in South Africa since 1948. But their use for illegal hunting remains a massive problem.”

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Bush reflected on the damage wrought on the environment by using sighthounds for hunting.
“The hunting is, mostly, not for food, it’s for sport. The guys bet on the dogs who can get injured. We’re fighting against this huge issue. We try and rehabilitate the dogs. We have a lot of dogs with injured legs, and a lot of amputees.”

A short walk away, husband and wife conservationists Lloreen and Albert le Roux had stalls dedicated to the welfare, protection and rescue of donkeys and lions.

The Lions Foundation, founded by Albert, rescued their first lion in 2016.

“We realised how they abuse lions and tigers all over the world, how they’re used for circus and entertainment purposes and how people buy lions and tigers to keep as pets,” he said. “We rescue them from all over the world, specifically in Europe – where we rescue them from circuses and private ownership, and we put them back into the wild as best as we can.”
He recalled when they rescued two lionesses recently.
“We rescued two lionesses out of private ownership in Kuwait over December 2023. The one lion was on the sixth floor in an apartment block, where the guy thought he could keep it as a pet and the other one was in a desert.”
Lloreen said she first became inspired to start the RestUrAss Donkey Sanctuary in 2017 following a trip with her husband to Lesotho, where she first experienced working donkeys.
“I saw how they work donkeys, how people don’t value them and how they’re abused,” Lloreen said. “I said to my husband that this is what I wanted to do. He asked me how many donkeys I wanted in my sanctuary, and I said 30. Now we have about 170.”

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