YouTuber Ordered To Create Welfare Videos For Owning Lion
A prominent Pakistani YouTuber, Rajab Butt, has been ordered to produce 12 animal welfare videos as a consequence of illegally keeping a lion cub.
Butt, who has 5.6 million followers on his channel, was seen with the cub gifted to him at his wedding last month by the owner of another YouTube channel.
As part of a community service directive, Butt is required to release a five-minute video each month for one year to raise awareness among his audience. The cub has been relocated to the Lahore Safari Zoo and named Bhatti by officials.
In an official statement, Butt expressed remorse for accepting the lion cub, acknowledging that “keeping wild animals in such circumstances is inappropriate.” He added, “As a social media influencer, I should create positive content. I was not authorised to keep the lion cub, and by doing so, I set a wrong example.”
The court has also instructed the wildlife department to assist Butt in creating his educational content. A wildlife officer reported Butt to authorities after watching a video on his YouTube channel last month, where he received the cub during his wedding.
In the video, the cub was presented to him in a cage by Umar Dolla, another YouTuber who runs the channel Lion Hub. Dolla initially claimed in court that he remained the cub’s legal owner. However, local reports indicate that the judge ruled Butt had seized the animal.
Butt vowed to “provide community service through my social media platforms and spread a positive message about the rights of wild animals.” Tariq Janjua, the director of Lahore Safari Zoo, emphasized in local media that lions cannot be domesticated and that keeping them is both inhumane and poses a risk to human safety.
(BBC)
