A young Iraqi man "unleashed" a lion to scare away police dogs meant to contain protesters who are taking part in the biggest wave of nationwide anti-government demonstrations in nearly two decades.
Amid reports that Iraqi security forces would be using dogs to curb down the weeks-long demonstrations, the unnamed young protester adopted a rather unique countermeasure by bringing his pet lion to reportedly take on the canine unit of the forces.
Photos and video showing the man walking the fearsome beast, draped in Iraqi national flag, on the streets of his hometown in Iraq's Babel Province, south of Baghdad, went viral on social media.
The video shows the lion briefly pouncing in the direction of a group of men but ably contained by the handler who held the beast by a heavy metallic chain. The lion then rests on the side of the road with the owner crouching next to his pet.
A screenshot of a tweet tagging the video of an Iraqi man walking a lion draped in national flag on the streets of his hometown in Babel Province.
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At least 320 people have been killed and thousands wounded since the mass unrest in Baghdad and southern Iraq began on October 1. Over the weeks, the protests have turned into the largest demonstrations since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003. Protesters are demanding the overthrow of a political class seen as corrupt and beholden to foreign interests.
The viral video has Arabic inscription stamped on it suggesting the footage was shot on November 10 somewhere in the Babel Province.
Iraq used to be home to Asiatic lions which are now listed among the endangered species and found only in the Gir National Park and Wildlife Sanctuary in India's Gujarat state. The last known lion in Iraq was killed in 1918 on the lower Tigris in the country's south, as documented in the 1959 publication "The Mammals of Iraq" (Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan) by Robert T. Hatt of Cranbrook Institute of Science.
Lack of government regulation is one of the reasons why many Iraqis continue to keep exotic pets including lions, leopards, crocodiles and pythons at home.
"There is no wildlife legislation here in Iraq, and that is what encourages these kinds of dealers to export and import wild species," an official from the conservation organization Nature Iraq was quoted as saying in an Associated Press report some years back.
Photos and video showing an Iraqi man walking a lion, draped in Iraqi national flag, went viral on social media.
"Do people have the ability to raise a lion in their home, or a vulture or a pelican?" he questioned. "There is a big gap in understanding wildlife in Iraq. They take it as a cub but after it becomes big and starts to attack people I don't know where the animal goes, and the concern is that they're killing them."
The AP report mentioned about an exotic animal market in northwestern Baghdad, which doubles up as zoo for neighborhood families.
"There is no fee to go in and look at the scores of animals - pelicans, peacocks, wolves, cats, monkeys, a porcupine, an owl, bear cubs and a dizzying array of dogs - and for the right price, you can take any one of them home with you. For about eight U.S. dollars you can have a duckling or a bunny; for 6,000 U.S. dollars one of the lion cubs," the report stated.
Many animals are likely being illegally imported into Iraq with forged papers or bribes to border officials. The government acknowledges the problem, but an immediate solution is unlikely.
Current laws governing Iraq's wildlife date back to the 1970s or earlier, and under the regime of Saddam Hussein many dealers were given permits to sell wild animals, which are still valid.