Russia: Nine circus animals die on 20-hour journey
Eight tigers and a lioness belonging to a Russian travelling circus died during a 20-hour truck journey across Siberia, police said today.
Officers in the Siberian region of Yakutia said the animals were dead when they arrived in the city of Yakutsk early today. An investigation is underway.
An employee of the private Mechta circus, based in the southern city of Krasnodar, said the Indian tigers and lioness suffocated because of poor ventilation on the heated truck.
The news portal Kursor.ru showed photographs of the dead tigers, one piled on top of another in a cage.
The animals were last seen alive in the city of Neryungri, 510 miles from Yakutsk.
