In the disturbing trend of using big cats as entertainment, the latest incident has emerged from Pakistan where a social media influencer is under fire for displaying a sedated lion at her birthday party. Videos that have gone viral on social media show the lion, chained and sedated, lounging on a sofa as music blares in the background. According to Vice News, the footage was filmed at influencer Susan Khan's birthday party in Lahore earlier this month.
Syed Hassan, who runs the non-profit organisation 'Project Save Animals', received videos of the lion from a friend who attended the party. "If you look at the paws of the lion, they are stubbed, meaning they were declawed," Mr Hassan told Vice News. "I've seen people in Pakistan showing off wild cats in public and social media. I find it messed up that people get pleasure from seeing an animal that is shackled and sedated."
Project Save Animals shared videos of the chained lion on Instagram, where they have caused outrage among animal rights activists. "These influencers have big audiences that follow them and that leaves them with a bigger responsibility to make the right choices because it's not just ONE birthday party," the organisation wrote. "While I am not against birthdays and how people choose to celebrate them but I am severely against people using animals as props."
Another video shows Ms Khan petting the lion.
"Absolutely disgusting, vile, and unacceptable! How can one's conscience allow this to happen?" asked one Instagram user in the comments section. "Absolutely horrific," said another.
Several people also asked that legal action be taken against Susan Khan.
According to news agency AFP, Pakistani laws make it easy to import exotic animals, but once inside the country regulation is almost non-existent. This has led to an untold number of such creatures -- especially big cats, seen as symbols of wealth and power -- being imported or bred across Pakistan in recent years, much to the horror of helpless wildlife officials.
One person who attended Ms Khan's party told Vice News that the lion was "not abused" at the gathering but did not seem amused either. "Everyone was just sort of scared, I guess, but the majority of people really enjoyed it," said the attendee.
Project Save Animals has also started a petition calling for a ban on using wildlife as props. The petition has received over 1,200 signatures out of its goal of 1,500.
In March this year, a Pakistani couple had faced major backlash for using a sedated lion cub in a wedding photo shoot.
