Women shares home with 11 cats - four cheetahs, five lions and two tigers

[Laila]

Sharing a bed with your furry friend has taken on a whole new meaning for Riana Van Nieuwenhuizen.

The sanctuary worker shares her South African home with not one but FOUR orphaned cheetahs, five lions and two tigers.

Forty-six-year-old Riana said: 'I love them all. But they're a handful

Riana bought her first cheetah, Fiela in 2006, after realising the big cats were in trouble and heading for extinction with only 1000 left in Africa.

She left her full time job working for the department of justice - a position she had held for 22 years - and found temporary employment on a game ranch where she could raise her beloved big cat.

But Riana's real dream was fully realised after she set up the not-for-profit Fiela Funds Cheetah Breeding Project in South Africa to ensure the long-term survival of the cheetah and their ecosystem.

I share my home with 11 cats - four cheetahs, five lions and two tigers | Mail Online

These aren't domestic animals crazy lady, i'll wait for my newspaper to report they have mauled and killed her shall i?

 

[jamesrage]

Its one thing to help raise orphaned animals to either return them to the wild (or the case of the big cats send them to a zoo for a breeding program) and its another thing to have these animals as pets. These are not domesticated animals, eventually one of these animals will kill her or someone else in that house if she tries to keep them as pets.

They can't be returned to the wild because they are somewhat tame around people and some scared farmer,villager,tourist or whoever might shoot the animal if it comes to close to them. I do not think she is trying to raise these animals and return them to a zoo for a breeding program seeing how she how she is treating these animals like pets.If she is then that seems like a ****ed up thing to do to a animal, raise and love it as a pet and then dump them in a caged environment where it will not get the same attention she has given them.


I think you are right we eventually will see a story involving one of those cats eating or killing her or someone else she knows. I think if she wants a wild cat as a pet then she needs to get something that is not big enough to maul her to death or eat her or even look into getting a hybrid of a domestic and wild cat breed like a savannah.