00:00The Big Cat Sanctuary in Smaden has seen tigers, leopards and jaguars,
00:04but its enclosures have never held a lion with a journey quite like this one.
00:08Una is an African lioness from Ukraine who travelled 1,400 miles to get to England,
00:14but with any luck she won't be the only one.
00:16Rory, another of the five lions from Kiev, was dropped off in Belgium
00:20and will join his furry friends at the sanctuary when their larger enclosure,
00:24the Lion Rescue Centre, is finished in November.
00:26The charity have been fundraising towards their rescue from the public,
00:29who raised £300,000 of their £500,000 target for the mission,
00:34which went towards the lions' food, treatment and the building of a new rescue centre.
00:39All the donations are massively appreciated and it's helping give these lions a second chance at life
00:44and they really do need it.
00:47They're severely traumatised and the ongoing care and support that they're going to need into the future
00:52is a massive one, so all help is really important for these lionesses and Rory, the male lion.
00:59Una is no ordinary lion.
01:01She was kept in poor conditions, a 3 by 4 metre bare concrete enclosure,
01:06with another lion, who became aggressive when the shelling started,
01:10which gave her a concussion and shell shock.
01:12According to rescuers, she was in very poor health and struggled to balance herself when they found her.
01:17Even now that she's arrived, she hasn't quite taken to her new outdoor enclosure,
01:22preferring to stay inside.
01:24Well, for the foreseeable future, this enclosure behind me will serve as Una's home.
01:28And the keepers here at the Big Cat Animal Sanctuary are doing everything they can to make her feel welcome.
01:33That includes painting on the glass to make sure that she understands that it's a barrier
01:37that people can't just walk through, as back in Ukraine she'd never seen glass before.
01:42She has also never seen grass and remains unstable on her feet,
01:46so it's understandable why she might be nervous.
01:49So because we know that she's historically had some issues with the shell shock and concussion,
01:54we've got things like mounds with gentle slopes that she can take herself up there nicely.
01:58There's no kind of steep drops, as it were.
02:01There is a platform, but she doesn't have access to it,
02:03and we'll just kind of build things up to the point where she's comfortable
02:07and it'll be safe for her to be able to go up there.
02:09Yeah, I think we're really hopeful that she's going to settle nicely.
02:13We'll do a lot of work just taking it really slow at her pace,
02:17build up her confidence, but build up her strength
02:19and hopefully get her to a point where she's like any of the other lions.
02:24Well, hopefully by the time that Rory, Vanda, Amani and Lyra arrive at the sanctuary,
02:28Una will have gotten used to her new surroundings.
02:31Finn McDermid for KMTV in Smarden.
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