The Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation rescued a captive Leopard Cub from a disgusting reality and are working to give her a bright and wild future. This is the story of how Phoenix will rise again.
Phoenix the Leopard Cub was rescued from a cage where she has been stuck for the last three weeks. The Wild Heart Wildlife Foundation helped to get her to safety.
They named her Phoenix to represent what she has come from and for what she will become. Her story is a sad one, left motherless and to fend for herself at just 6 months old she was placed in a cage and left to wallow in her own mess. She bruised, scratched and injured herself trying to get free from the cage. Her fur was missing, rubbed raw and matted from the stress she endured during her three-week imprisonment.
Thankfully Wild Hearts was there to rescue her. They sedated the stunning Leopard Cub, bathed her and a vet gave her a number of medicines to fight a variety of different health problems.
“Her paws and nose were treated, disinfected, and wound spray used (the blue markings you can see in the pictures). The vet de-wormed her; they had never seen such a terrible infestation – a result of her time spent in her own filth. She was inoculated and left to wake up in a cool, clean enclosure with fresh water. The next day she was started on a proper diet of venison and wild birds.”
The best news about the rescue is that there is still a good amount of time for Phoenix to be raised wild and released when she is old enough. The organisation strongly believes in the rehabilitation of wildlife and sending them back into the wild.
“She has recovered fantastically and looks like a different leopard from the pitiful being we rescued. She has a clean bill of health now and will be released into a big boma within the next few days.”
“Here she will be trained to catch her own food because she is due for release into the wild. Human interaction is not allowed, not only because she is quite capable of killing a human at this stage, but most importantly, because we want her to be wild, free, and scared of humans – that is the true nature of leopards.”
“Leopard cubs stay with their mothers for at least two years, so this girl has a lot of learning to do, sadly, without that privilege.”
You can find out more about what the foundation does here and stay updated on Phoenix’s rise.
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