Outrage and sadness as bid to ‘bring Bores home’ ends in lynx’s death
The heroic struggle to free Bores from a cage underneath a waterslide has ended in tragedy.
The desert lynx, who spent six years of his life as a pet on a farm in Madeira, never recovered from the tranquilizing dart used on him ahead of his transporting ‘home’.
This was to have been the ‘end of the nightmare’ that began when authorities removed Bores from his owners, on the basis that they were keeping an exotic animal ‘illegally’.
Up until that point, Bores had had a happy, loved existence.
His ‘apprehension’ on the orders of the IFCN – Instituto das Florestas e da Conservação da Natureza – saw him confined to a cage underneath a waterslide, clearly becoming depressed, and losing weight.
The massive campaign over social media to ‘stop this cruelty’ saw authorities relent. Bores was to be returned home, while a ‘better solution’ was considered (if one existed).
But on the day he was due to be freed, in transfer from the water park to his family’s home, “Bores’ clinical condition began to deteriorate rapidly”.
Instead of going home, he was “ sent straight to his Veterinarian’s Clinic, where he remained under observation and with a very poor clinical prognosis”, his family wrote over social media yesterday
“In the days that followed, the evolution of Bores’ clinical condition remained very worrying, which is why all the tests and clinical assessments available to us were carried out, in the hope of obtaining a diagnosis and treatment as quickly as possible.
“Despite all the medical care that was available to us, and despite the best efforts of the medical team that accompanied Bores, he sadly passed away this afternoon.
“We would like to take this opportunity to express our eternal gratitude for the tireless support of all those who were concerned about Bores’ well-being and who fought for him to return home with his family, and we would like to thank everyone for respecting our family’s privacy at this difficult time. Bores’ family ♥️”
Dozens of comments after this post that carried a video of Bores, happy before his apprehension by authorities, and then dying, post-sedation, lament at the futility of this whole exercise.
Said one follower of the drama: “Bores did not die. They simply killed him. What was the point of removing him so cruelly from the family he loved, and who loved him, to “comply with the law? Wasn’t there another alternative? Was this outcome preferable? All courage to the family, and hopes that they will find who is to blame for the death of an innocent!”
According to the association that led the campaign to free Bores, Bores’ family has hired a lawyer to get to the bottom of how a tranqulizing dart could have had such devastating consequences.
Literally, from the moment it was administered, Bores “lost the capacity to walk and eat”.
How could what should be to any veterinarian a well-practised procedure have gone so terribly wrong?
