The story of our rescue of Ruben the lion from Armenia – dubbed “the loneliest lion in the world” – exploded worldwide, with coverage in the US, UK, South Africa, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Montenegro, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, and Vietnam.
Ruben’s suffering and the rescue has touched the hearts of millions, and importantly, we got into the headlines the suffering of isolation and impacts on the health of captive animals.
We have often said that reuniting animals with their own kind is one of the most important things we can do for animals. Who can forget those precious moments when spider monkey Pepe met Valerie, or lioness Kiara was reunited with her cubs? It is in these moments when humans recognize family bonds and feelings in nonhuman animals and see the physical damage caused by captivity. This is where they become beings, rather than objects.
Tragically, human ignorance has left too many isolated animals in cages in zoos and circuses, but Ruben’s story had a particular poignancy. For all his life, he had been surrounded in his concrete cell by other animals, then six years ago his world fell silent. He was left alone in a squalid cage when the private zoo he was in was emptied.
When we questioned this, we were told “there was no room for him on the truck”. We were stunned. For us, it takes a special kind of heartlessness to drive away leaving old Ruben without his family, all alone. No future, nobody to care.
But we did it! Thanks to ADI supporters, Ruben has been given another chance at life, in his ancestral homeland and amongst his own kind. His first sun on his back, his first grass beneath his feet. When he calls out, somebody knows what he is saying and answers back. Ruben’s story has a happy ending and has rung out around the world – so much so that the UK’s Daily Star newspaper described him as “Legendary”. Here is a handful of the coverage:
Ruben’s progress has been really impressive. He is a fighter. His whole demeanor has changed since his arrival at the ADI Wildlife Sanctuary. Gone is that anxious, angry, scared face, his eyes large and rounded. His movement has improved more than we could have hoped in the two weeks since he arrived. When the Resident Welfare Team members call him, he strides with strength and purpose to come for his ‘treat’ (his supplements hand fed with tongs).
The latest development is that after spending his nights in his house since arrival, he made it clear to the Resident Welfare Team that he wished to spend his nights outside. As spring has arrived and the nights are warmer, we leave his night house door open so that he can choose which space he wants to use.
We cannot thank everyone enough for helping us to bring Ruben home. Saving Ruben was an important and life-changing decision for him, but also for ADI, an opportunity to strike another blow against the belief that our fellow earthlings who don’t look like us, communicate and live in a different way from us, can be dismissed like objects. We believe his story has educated people about the suffering of nonhuman ‘others’ – often the greatest cruelty they endure is emptiness.
Our mission at ADI is twofold: to help transform the lives of animals like Ruben and to campaign to ensure that these abuses come to an end forever. You can continue to support this work here. Thank you.
ADI Wildlife Sanctuary 