“The lion was stunned and captured.” It was 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. when the mayor of Ladispoli, Alessandro Grando, ended on Facebook the emergency that began shortly after 3 p.m. when the animal escaped from the circus in Via del Mediterraneo had escaped. It was the mayor himself who sounded the alarm at 4:35 p.m., making official the rumors that had been circulating on social media for over an hour.
After the police intervention, an alarm from the mayor immediately triggered the trail of the animal, which was tracked down and isolated in the thicket of reeds near the Sanguinara watercourse. At 4:30 p.m. a siege of sorts began with a cage and the circus owner on site. However, the animal, which was kept under control, did not want to have anything to do with being captured. The moments of greatest fear are between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., when the lion emerges from the reeds and walks over Warsaw, Mosca and Budapest. Everything filmed by citizens. [qui il video]
Scared, scared and stalked by police and cell phones, The King of the Jungle, who became Emperor of Ladispoli, has returned to the reeds. Specialists have now arrived on site with anesthetics. The goal is to calm the lion and then capture it. The sedative was fired around 9 p.m. Forty minutes later, the animal predictably fell asleep and was then taken into the care of circus staff, but not before it was dragged to the foot of the pickup truck by volunteers and citizens, who then took the animal back to the tent.
“I thank the State Police, the Carabinieri, the Fire Department, the local and regional police, the local health authority and all the volunteers who served in these hours of great concern,” added Mayor Grando, who then closed the controversy that at the first moment Post began: “I hope this episode can awaken some consciences and we can finally put an end to the exploitation of animals in circuses.”
In fact, Grando wanted to make it clear that afternoon that he had not approved the circus with animals. “Why did the mayor approve the circus? The answer is that I have not approved anything, it is not my place to do so and unfortunately we cannot ban circuses with animals from our city. In 2017 we tried, but we didn’t succeed.” We lost the appeal to the TAR and we also had to reimburse the appellants for their legal costs. Until the rules change, we can’t do anything differently.”