Russia: Woman took a nine-month lioness on a train as a domestic cat.

Young lioness

Imagine a train trundling through the Ural Mountains in the middle of Russia and on this train is a woman who had brought along with her her pet lioness. She had treated her 9-month-old lioness as a domestic cat and brought her along into a train compartment believing that she could cope with everything as normal.  She couldn't manage - but it surprises me that she actually got this far in the first place.  Why didn't someone stop her and ask a few questions?

Anyway she couldn't cope because the lioness became too playful!  I wonder what the other passengers thought?

The lioness weighs 50 kg and the transport police say that the cat was not muzzled.  It is the first time that I have heard of a lioness being muzzled and treated as a domestic cat on a train.

The Transport Department of the Interior Ministry sedated the lion and the lion was handed over to an experienced person to look after her.

I'm not sure how the whole bizarre episode panned out.  No doubt some railway employees will be hauled up in front of the boss to explain themselves and I hope very much that this lady gets her lioness back.

We all know that some Americans like exotic animals and particularly exotic cats including big cats which they sometimes keep as pets.  This is the first time I've heard a Russian lady doing the same thing and taking it to an extreme by travelling on a train with her pet domestic cat!  Her lioness was registered as a domestic cat.

The story comes from Pravda online.  The photograph comes from the online article as well.  I don't have the name of the photographer unfortunately.