In a heartbreaking blow to animal conservation, poachers baited, killed and then mutilated two lions at a sanctuary in South Africa, roughly a year after the big cats were rescued from circuses. The two elderly male lions, José and Liso, were at the Emoya Big Cat Sanctuary in Vaalwater, north of Pretoria, when poachers broke in and killed them earlier this month, Animal Defenders International announced. “It’s an absolute tragedy.”According to the Post, the lions had been poisoned. “This is not just another poaching incident,” Minunette Heuser, who runs the sanctuary with her daughter Savvanah Heuser, said in a statement. “We are going to unite, stronger than ever, and bring to justice the perpetrators who murdered our two beloved boys, José and Liso.”

Source: Huffington Post June 12, 2017 22:07 UTC