The life of Kiros, a lion cub separated from his family by a dubious zoo owner, could inspire a Disney film — animals in peril, a heroic rescue, a missing baby, a happy ending.
Kiros was born in 2023 at Zoo Animalia, a roadside animal attraction in Quebec. The newborn lived in a dank and dilapidated enclosure alongside seven other lions, including his parents, Kim and Carl, said Rebecca Aldworth, executive director of Humane World for Animals Canada, whose organization helped shut down the zoo and rescue the lions.
Only, when rescuers arrived, Kiros wasn’t there. Shortly before Humane World showed up, Aldworth said, the young lion had been lost to the illegal pet trade.
Though the likelihood the cub would ever see his family again was slim, animal welfare groups on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border held out hope. They tracked clues — a Facebook post, a cub sighting in a Quebec neighborhood — like paw prints in the Serengeti.
A race to rescue the lions
The Quebec zoo had been on Humane World’s watch list long before Kiros was born.
In 2019, Humane World helped the Montreal SPCA close the facility and rescue more than 250 exotic animals including zebras, camels, bears, wolves, tigers and kangaroos. Sanctuaries and accredited zoos across North America took custody of the animals.
The zoo owner later pleaded guilty to four animal welfare offenses, then rented the property to a new proprietor.
The new management “started the same loop of breeding and selling big cats as pets and for exhibits, and having substandard care for the animals,” said Tammy Thies, founder and executive director of the Wildcat Sanctuary in Minnesota, who was closely following the case.
When the operator eventually declared bankruptcy in 2023, the zoo rehomed all of the animals except seven lions, which included the mother of Kiros’s half sister Mango. The trustee threatened to euthanize the lions unless a rescue organization took possession of them, according to Aldworth. Humane World mobilized, constructing a lion habitat at an Ontario sanctuary in 2025 and applying for permits to move the cats to accredited sanctuaries in Minnesota and Arkansas.
Meanwhile, a parallel drama starring Kiros was unfolding.
Missing cub sighting on Facebook and in Quebec
Staff members at the Wildcat Sanctuary saw images of a cub on Facebook that, based on the time and location of the posts, led them to believe they had found Kiros. In one video, a cub clambers out of a blue packing crate set on a car passenger seat. Emitting a stream of baby grunts, the tawny cat bites the pinkie of an unidentified hand. In another image, he appears to be licking a pacifier-like object.
On the streets of Quebec, Aldworth said concerned citizens noticed a resident parading a tethered cub around the neighborhood. They tipped off the authorities.
“People talk. When you see a wildcat walking down the street on a leash, it becomes a topic of discussion,” she said. “It’s really through people telling other people that eventually somebody picks up that phone and calls enforcement, and that’s when good people intervene.”
The Quebec government seized Kiros, then known as Oscar, in 2023 and placed him in the care of an accredited zoo in the same province.
At the time, the Wildcat Sanctuary was focused on moving Kim, Carl and Mango from their temporary accommodations to their permanent home, a 220-acre refuge 90 miles north of Minneapolis.
The journey involved two road trips to Canada totaling about 26 hours of driving. Thies said once they confirmed with the Quebec zoo staff that Kiros was the son of their newest residents, she knew they had to reunite the family, even if it took years to accomplish.
“It was this bittersweet moment, because I can’t tell you how many times we do rescue work, and we hear about a cub that’s been mistreated or not cared for or is in the pet market, and we never find them again,” Thies said.
Siblings meet for the first time
On March 16, after more than two years of planning the first rescue, a team from the sanctuary drove 2,280 miles round trip from Sandstone, Minnesota, to Quebec to pick up Kiros, whose years in captivity prevented him from living safely in the wild. The once kittenish cub was now a regal teen with a cascading mane, intense almond-shaped eyes and a chiseled face. Thies said Kiros, whose African name translates to “lord,” initially made a ruckus during the transport but eventually settled down.
“He’s a handful,” she said. “A teenage lion will put a teenage boy to shame any day.”
Because Kiros was raised by humans, the sanctuary staff is helping him acquire the social skills necessary to live with other lions before they can fully unite the family. The first step is for Kiros to join a social group. If all goes well, they can integrate him into a larger pride, a process that can take up to a year.
His enclosure shares a wall with a tiger named Nova, a “spitfire” who, Thies said, will help teach him good manners. Though Kiros has not yet seen or interacted with his parents, he is in proximity to Mango.
When he first arrived, his sister behaved as many siblings do when presented with a surprise addition to the family: She was a touch jealous and somewhat miffed.
“Mango did not really appreciate Kiros the first couple days because he was getting all the attention that she was used to getting,” Thies said.
But the pair, similar in personality, has moved on from sibling rivalry to becoming playmates.
Thies said Kiros and Mango have been communicating through a wall separating their enclosures, much like a brother and sister who whisper between their respective bedrooms when the parents are out of earshot.
“They will get to grow up just being lions,” Thies said, “with companionship of their own kind and living wild at heart.”
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