A truck carrying caged tigers has been stopped on the Poland-Belarus border since Sunday (October 27) as Belarusian authorities refused it permission to cross into the country. One animal has died in transport. The condition of remaining nine animals has been assessed as "tragic".
Ten tigers set off from Rome on October 22 with a Russian zoo in the southern region of Dagestan as their destination. One of the tigers died in transit.
A veterinarian at the border crossing near the village of Koroszczyn said they were unable to unload the tigers because they only had facilities equipped to deal with farm animals.
"The death of one of the tigers was probably due to problems with its stomach," Deputy Border Veterinarian Eugeniusz Karpiuk said.
"We are trying to organise some rest ... so they can gather their strength for further travel," Karpiuk said, adding the tigers had been fed and given water.
A spokeswoman for Poland's customs and tax authority in the regional capital Lublin said Belarus had refused permission for the driver due to a lack of visas and other required documents.
A zoo in the western Polish city of Poznań has offered to host the animals.
"What our workers saw at the border was a nightmare. The tigers were covered in their own feces, exhausted, starved, our veterinarian assessed their condition as tragic," such information was posted at the official Facebook page of the Poznań zoo.
"I hope the tigers will reach us today, time is against us," Ewa Zgrabczyńska, the director of Poznań zoo in western Poland, told TVN24.
"The animals are locked up, unfed with nothing to drink, it is a huge tragedy."
Zgrabczyńska said the animals would stay in Poznań until they received documents to be transported to an animal reserve in Spain.
Autor: gf / Źródło: TVN24 News in English, Reuters
Źródło zdjęcia głównego: tvn24