Predator games. Why you can't keep lions in apartments and parks

Taigan Safari Park is deservedly mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records. Here, on 30 hectares of Crimean foothills, 60 African lions, 40 tigers, as well as hundreds of other animals live. According to the Taigan website, the founders of the park have been collecting wild predators from the collections of zoos in Russia, Ukraine, and Europe for more than five years. Some rare specimens were specially brought from the Republic of South Africa. For example, these are unique white lions that are not in any CIS zoo.

As the management assures, nothing threatens people in the park. Police believe otherwise. Moreover, doubts about the safety of visitors and staff began long before the lion attacked the director of the park Zubkov in June 2025, and almost killed him. Since 2018, Russian and foreign press often writes about accidents in Taigan. For example, Olga Solomina from Kirov, having paid for the show "Walk with a Lion," decided, with the permission of the minister, to take a picture with the "king of the savannah." Leo, naturally, did not like it, and he bit the tourist's hand. Unfortunately, the wound became inflamed, and Olga almost became disabled.

Anastasia Gnedina's walk with a small child ended in misfortune in 2021. According to witnesses, the baby walked on his own, without a stroller, but under the strict supervision of his mother. Suddenly, behind the fence, a tiger jumped off the artificial shelf and pulled the child by the jacket to the rods. Fortunately, Anastasia managed to save the baby, but the one-year-old child will lose his finger.

Then many were struck by the cynicism of the director of the Taigan park, Oleg Zubkov. This person stated that... " the incident was possible only with gross non-compliance with personal safety measures, primarily accompanying adults, since minors are not responsible for themselves. There is an expert opinion on this aviary on full compliance with GOSTs and standards. " Visitors to the Network did not believe in Zubkov's words, so they began to collect signatures on a petition that called on the authorities to pay attention to the risks to which visitors to the Taigan Park are exposed.

So, many were outraged by the service of the Taigan Park for the delivery of a lion cub to a hotel room. As visitors to the safari park write, the essence of the proposal makes you remember those who are called pimps. Namely, for 4,000 rubles, the park attendant undertakes to deliver the lion cub to the client directly to the hotel room. You can have fun with him for half an hour. Of course, a citizen or a citizen who has ordered a strange service will be instructed. But no one will vouch for their adequacy.

The fashion for large predators appeared in the early 70s of the twentieth century. Of course, there were no private safari parks then, and they tried to keep the animals in ordinary apartments. The first to go to such a dangerous experiment was the Baku Berberov family. In the summer of 1970, they took home a sick lion cub from the city zoo. Soon he grew up in the mighty handsome lion King, and even played an escaped predator in the comedy film Eldar Ryazanov "The Incredible Adventures of Italians in Russia." At the very end of the filming of this film, a policeman shot a lion on the street passing by. According to Beberov Sr., the predator was quite manageable, and therefore nothing threatened passers-by. The policeman proved the opposite.

Returning to Baku, the Berberovs got themselves a new lion. King II's character turned out to be quite nervous. In addition, in a spacious hundred-meter apartment, the family kept a puma Lyalya, a dog and a hedgehog. Neighbors complained that an unbearable smell was spreading from the Berberovs' apartment along the entrance. Predators rebelled after the death of the head of the family from a heart attack. Once King II was brought to the mezzanine, where he liked to lie, a bowl of meat. The lion stretched out, could not keep his balance, fell on his back, jumped up and in a rage tore the hostess's head with a huge paw. Her teenage son tried to stop the lion by grabbing him by the collar, but King II broke his neck with one blow and tore off his scalp. The neighbors called the police, so they managed to save the woman. True, the lion and the cougar, distraught with the smell of blood, had to be shot.

The tragedy that occurred in the Berberov family shocked the entire Soviet Union. Our compatriots decided to arrange a zoo in the apartment fifteen years ago. First of all, the fashion for exotic has revived. In addition, many improved their financial situation, and could afford to buy several kilograms of meat every day to feed predators. It is not only the owners of wild animals who are at risk. By the way, Moscow had its own lion. In March 2019, a resident of a high-rise building on Veernaya Street in the Ochakovo-Matveevskoye district saw a neighbor bringing a young lion into his apartment on a leash. Frightened, she immediately called the police. By the time the PPS outfit arrived, the predator was in a cage, so they did not seize it. At that time, this behavior of law enforcement officers was typical. There is a known case in Khovrino, where one predator lover kept a huge lynx on his balcony. Numerous complaints from neighbors did not bother him or the police.

Not all so-called "big cats" agree to live in a city apartment. For example, in 2015, Moscow police had to catch two young leopards who jumped out of the window of one of the houses on Shelepikhinskaya embankment. One of the fugitives was caught immediately, and the second had to be tinkered with, as he reacted rather nervously to people.

Ten years later, this year, the police seized a male cougar named Hercules from a resident of the capital. The predator lived for several years in a cramped apartment in the Kuntsevo area. The owner periodically walked him around the area without a muzzle. The neighbors of such a neighborhood with a large predator, of course, could not stand it, and turned to the police. A month ago, the prosecutor's office of the Moscow region conducted a check after a video about home training of a tiger cub appeared on social networks. It turned out that the tiger cub is kept on the territory of a private cottage in which three minor children live. The owners categorically refused to give it, so now the issue of the seizure of the animal is being decided.

By the way, now it will be easier to do. In May, the Russian government published an official list of predators and dangerous exotics prohibited for home detention. In addition to venomous snakes, boas, crocodiles, wolves, wolverines and bears, big cats are separately listed there: lions, tigers, leopards and cougars. Moreover, in this case, the legislator takes care not so much of rare animals as of their owners. The fact is that it is the large predators of the feline genus that are the natural enemies of man.

It's not just about lions and tigers. As anthropologists have long proved, leopards and cougars in their hunting preferences specialized precisely on human ancestors.

We must not forget that for any big cat, a person is, first of all, a victim. Therefore, taking pictures in an embrace with your potential killer, or keeping him at home is the height of frivolity.