The big cats ordered to be removed from the illegal Montekristo Animal Park several months ago are “stuck there”, with international zoos refusing to take them, The Sunday Times of Malta has learnt.

“At the moment, we are stuck, no one will take them and I don’t know where they’ll end up,” a government source working on the relocation told this newspaper.

READ: Tiger injures young boy at Montekristo zoo

The tigers, lions and jaguars held at the now-closed animal park were ordered to be relocated after two people were injured by big cats there nearly a year ago.

The conditions in which the animals are being held in their zoo enclosures are not known, as there is no access to the site.

Sources said that zoos contacted to adopt them had raised several concerns, especially about the origin of the cats and their  enclosure conditions.

“Large zoos have particular requirements for animal transfers, standards which are seldom met by private collections such as this. Moving an animal like this isn’t simple,” one source said.

READ: Still no action on Montekristo zoo

It seems like the animals will be remaining at the animal park for the foreseeable future, as “it’s not like we can move them to government facilities; we’re talking about tigers, not cattle.”

A spokesman for the park said, meanwhile, that the zoo’s owner, construction magnate Charles Ċaqnu Polidano, had also tried to relocate the animals after having contacted a number of foreign zoos.

It’s not like we can move them to government facilities; we’re talking about tigers, not cattle

He said that many of the animals were adults and moving them into new climates and different conditions could be traumatic for them. “One of the first things we did was to start trying to find somewhere to put these animals, but it hasn’t been easy,” the spokesman said.

The contentious animal park first closed its doors after a young girl was clawed by a tiger last November.

The tiger had been “let out for a walk” by its handlers during visiting hours, and the girl had to undergo surgery after the tiger scratched her back and face. The park was closed immediately by its owners due to “unforeseen circumstances” and remained so during a magisterial inquiry.

However, it was not long before a second incident occurred.

The park was inexplicably open during a fair in April, and a child, this time a young boy, suffered scratches to his neck and back from another animal, a juvenile lioness.

Prime Minister Joseph Muscat took to his personal Twitter account to announce that action would be taken against Mr Polidano and the park would be closed.

Dr Muscat tasked Planning Parliamentary Secretary Deborah Schembri with ensuring justice was served.

Asked for an update on the situation, a spokeswoman for Dr Schembri said the Planning Authority had sealed off the illegal park and installed CCTV equipment for 24-hour surveillance.

No information on the legal action being taken against the operators of the animal park was provided.

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