A Pakistani YouTuber with roughly 5.6 million subscribers, was recently court-ordered to create animal welfare videos on his channel as a penalty for unlawfully keeping a lion cub gifted to him at his wedding, according to the BBC.
Rajab Butt received court-ordered community service to create one five-minute video per month for twelve months to raise awareness about wild animals’ rights.
“As a social media influencer, I should create positive content. I was not authorised to keep the lion cub, and by doing so, I set a wrong example,” Butt stated.
The lion cub was gifted to Butt by Umar Dolla, another YouTube personality. After Butt posted a video to his channel of him receiving the caged cub as a gift, a wildlife officer saw the footage and alerted the police.
In discussions with the court, Dolla tried to maintain that the cub was legally his property, but the judge determined the cub was no longer his.
The cub has since been safely relocated to Lahore Safari Zoo.
No animal should have to experience the fear of being taken from their mother and robbed of their natural life in the wild. Keeping wild animals as pets will always be cruel and can cause serious suffering.
If you see wild animals being kept as pets on social media, do not hesitate to report it. Lady Freethinker commends Pakistani authorities who took action for this innocent cub.
