Lion Man's big cats still in limbo

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Thu, 26 Jan 2012 7:00p.m.

It's been over three years since star of the Lion Man series - Craig Busch - was forced out of the Zion Wildlife Gardens, and five months since the Northland attraction was placed into liquidation.

While secret deals are negotiated and court battles are waged, the fate of the 36 big cats is still uncertain amid questions over who owns them.

Watch the video for Natasha Utting's full report.

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Comments

02 Feb 2012 05:38a.m.

Lal Quinn wrote:

Having seen the TV series Lion Man I was very keen to visit Zion Wildlife Park while I was on holiday from Ireland in Feb 2011. I got my wish. It was a wonderful experience and Martin - the Keeper was marvellous. He was great with the animals. The raport he had with all of them and his love for them was palpable. He made the whole visit so uplifting. It was heartbreaking though, to hear of all the trouble,(as told to me by all who heard I wanted to visit), and the fact that the NZ people were not supporting it was very sad.
I went with another Irish friend, and we had Martin's exclusive attention for the first 30 minutes. Later we were joined by an English couple who were equally impressed. Nobody else came to visit.
I have some excellent photos - taken by Martin - that bring back the magic of these magnificent animals.
I sincerely hope that Mrs Busch and her daughter are treated well by the courts. They deserve it, having come to the rescue of the Park initially. Family fall-outs are very sad, and destructive, and every effort should be made to try to bring about reconciliations.

27 Jan 2012 09:09a.m.

LBV wrote:

These animals are all on the endangered list, surely this means that MAF or one of the other Government Agencies should be involved. Although there is a black market for these animals, surely this sort of thing would happen in Asian countries where it is harder to police - not New Zealand.