The story of a British man, a war veteran flying to Ukraine to evacuate a lion and a wolf from a zoo has left people astonished. People are praising the man for saving the animals, as well as his two companions, who were stranded at a zoo just miles from the front lines. The man, who went by the name Tim Locks, also documented his journey on Facebook.
On March 19, he explained how he took a detour to rescue the animals after dropping off some aid.
“19 March – So here we are. Having successfully dropped off the aid in the city we went to our primary task. The evacuation of a Lion and a Wolf from a closed Ukrainian zoo to an undisclosed European country. After a full afternoon yesterday of paperwork completed by our local guy, we caught up on sleep and started at 08:00 this morning. It took 3 hours to load both animals into the back of a ford transit minibus with the seats removed using a crane and a JCB.
We are now heading out of the city while the air raid sirens going off with a police escort. Long way to go but all going well so far. Further updates will come as we push on. Everyone needs evacuating and there are plenty of teams looking after people. Strangely, no one else wanted to do this….so this is what we do,” he wrote.
The British man published another post around 21 hours ago to keep people up to date on the lion and wolf situation. “Simba and Akela Update. We’ve just heard back from the zoo in Romania and it’s amazing to hear that both Simba and Akela are settling in well. Both are eating and drinking plenty and enjoying some « chill » time after the long journey. As for us, we’re well-rested and spending the time reorganizing vehicles and kit while we wait for the next task,” he wrote.
People have left a lot of positive feedback on both posts. “You seriously rock!!!” wrote a Facebook user. “Thank you for doing what you do! Please stay safe!” shared another. “Well done Tim. Great work!” commented a third.
According to the Daily Mail, Tim Locks is distributing essentials in Ukraine that he got through crowdsourcing. Lock and his buddies are returning to the war-torn country to help with relief efforts.