Northeast Ohioans donate wild game meat for ailing lion Jao at Noah’s Lost Ark
BERLIN CENTER, Ohio (WJW) — Jao has gone on a “hunger strike” before — but not like this.
The 18-year-old lion, who lives at Noah’s Lost Ark Exotic Animal Rescue Center, has gone a week or 10 days without eating before — for seemingly no reason, said center Director Ellen Karnofel.
But last week marked 20 days, and center staff and veterinarians couldn’t figure out why, she said.
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“Our veterinarian has stated there’s no medical reason for him not to be eating,” Karnofel told FOX 8 News. Checks of his heart, liver, lungs and kidneys didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, she said.
Jao — who’s been neutered, causing him to lose his mane — has spent most of his life at the rescue, having been turned over from a breeding facility. Karnofel said Jao has a constant companion in his sister, with whom he has a good relationship — so they don’t think loneliness has curbed his appetite.
“He’s done this the past five, six years and we’ve never come up with a good reason. It never lasted that long and he’d bounce back and look great,” she said. “This time, he just didn’t bounce back, and we were looking for something different to trigger something.”
The center put out a call for donations of wild game meat on Facebook, looking for something off-menu like deer, elk, pheasant — “something that would smell different to him,” Karnofel said.
The center was “overwhelmed” with support and generosity, Karnofel said. Within an hour, the post had been shared more than 1,000 times. Commenters showed up offering fish, venison, goose and even boar.
But it was the rabbit with fur still intact that piqued Jao’s palate, said Karnofel.
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“He’s eating a little better. I’m not trying to be too optimistic or pessimistic, but he did eat some of the game that people brought,” she said.
Jao ended up eating about 5 pounds of the donated game meat, she said. He normally eats about 8 to 10 pounds of food at a time — usually chicken, ground turkey and red meats, all supplemented with vitamins.
“Your kindness never disappoints but always overwhelms us,” center workers wrote in an update on Facebook. “We have a long road ahead and will do everything humanly possible to save him. Thank you all!”
Noah’s Lost Ark, a nonprofit rescue along Bedell Road in Berlin Center, has been in operation since 1998, providing a home for “all types” of exotic animals, said Karnofel. It’s not a zoo, but it does offer tours of its grounds and enclosures between May and October, she said.
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