Welsh Rugby Star Attacked By Lion After Petting It Like A Cat

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A famous Welsh rugby player has been injured while trying to pet a lion in South Africa.

Scott Baldwin, who is a hooker for Ospreys and Wales, was caught on camera sticking his hand through the fence of the lion enclosure at Weltevreden Game Lodge on the outskirts of Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Baldwin tried to rub one of the big cats’ heads as if it were a pet cat:

Wow – imagine thinking a wild animal would have the same temperament as a domesticated cat.

Unsurprisingly, Baldwin quickly learned his lesson when the big cat snapped at him.

Baldwin required a ‘couple of stitches’ for the wound but was forced to miss his teams Pro14 match against the rather aptly-named Cheetahs.

Yes Baldwin suffered a wound which required stitches, meanwhile the poor lion may face it’s untimely death as a part of canned hunting.

The website for the Weltevreden Game Lodge states:

Weltevreden Game Lodge not only caters for hunting enthusiasts…

According to the Guardian:

Animal welfare groups say most breeders sell their stock to be shot dead by wealthy trophy-hunters from Europe and North America, or for traditional medicine in Asia.

The article continues:

The easy slaughter of animals in fenced areas is called ‘canned hunting’, perhaps because it’s rather like shooting fish in a barrel.

A fully-grown, captive-bred lion is taken from its pen to an enclosed area where it wanders listlessly for some hours before being shot dead by a man with a shotgun, hand-gun or even a crossbow, standing safely on the back of a truck. He pays anything from £5,000 to £25,000, and it is all completely legal.

Although it’s unclear whether the lions in the video are part of the hunting, it’s a shame we can’t appreciate these magnificent creatures in their natural habitat.

But back to poor old Baldwin – he took to Twitter to go on and apologise to fans for his actions.

Ospreys boss Steve Tandy said Baldwin was both ‘pretty stupid’ and ‘pretty lucky’.

According to the BBC, he said:

I don’t know what sort of wildlife show Scott has been watching where you can pat a lion on the head as if it’s a kitten.

It’s probably one of the silliest things I’ve even been involved in, but thankfully he is OK and hopefully he will be back up and running in the next couple of weeks.

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Animal welfare groups regularly warn people about participating in animal interactions and paying to do so, especially with young animals, because the animals suffer in a number of ways.

I don’t understand why people fail to realise animals are not here for our entertainment?

UNILAD