Lions Leave, but Not on Little Cats’ Feet : Permits: Illegal cubs sent from San Clemente back to Kansas farm, amid the snarls of animal rights groups.

Seven well-traveled African lion cubs that were seized here boarded a truck Thursday for a Kansas farm--and an uncertain future.

By order of the state Department of Fish and Game, the docile cubs were taken out of the San Clemente Animal Shelter, destined for Ray Smith’s ranch in Longford, where they originated.

Smith said he and his son raised the cubs along with 15 others on their 1,100-acre spread, where they also raise American buffalo.

“We’ve been raising buffalo for 30 years. The lions are a newer thing,” he said.

The seven de-clawed cubs, ages 4 to 15 months, were seized late Monday night from Woodstock’s Health Emporium in downtown San Clemente. The store’s two owners, Eric Jarvies, 23, and Bruce Miller, 26, both of Balboa, were cited for possessing, transporting and trying to sell the cubs without city, state and federal permits.

While those misdemeanor counts are pending, Lt. A.C. Lawrence of the Department of Fish and Game decided Thursday to ship the lions back to Kansas, where, like here, they have been featured on TV newscasts.

Jarvies is driving the crated lions in an air-conditioned truck, accompanied by state officials as far as the border, Lawrence said.

Utmost in his decision was the lions’ good health, said Lawrence, who added that they all appeared unhurt and well taken care of.

“We’ve had three vets look at them. They have no infections or abscesses and seem to be fine,” Lawrence said. “If I thought they had been mistreated, I would charge (Jarvies) with that.”

While they may be healthy now, the lions’ future is anything but bright, lion experts and animal rights activists said.

An African lion that is expected to grow to 400 pounds and live for 20 years makes a poor house pet, they said. Zoos are full of the prolific cats, and the wild would be a death sentence for cubs without claws.

“In something like this, the lions will lose out no matter what,” said Kim Sturla, a spokeswoman for Fund for Animals, a national animal rights group. “This is a very unfortunate thing for these lions. They will probably end up at a hunting ranch in Texas.”

Sturla said her organization urges legislation to outlaw private “canned hunting ranches,” where wild, exotic animals are shipped to be killed in hunts.

People all over the country are breeding such animals “like puppies in puppy farms,” to be sold to unscrupulous or purely impulse buyers, she added.

Michael Fouraker, curator of the Knoxville Zoo and one of the country’s foremost lion experts, agreed.

“Too often people try to feed them chicken or beef only,” Fouraker said. “They really need the internal organs of animals they kill in the wild. Otherwise, the calcium in their bones will break down to the point where they are literally breaking bones just jumping off chairs.”

But the bigger problem for these particular cats is the de-clawing, Fouraker said.

“Personally, I don’t like it because it is disfiguring an animal,” he said. “But the real problem is it puts this cat at a disadvantage when competing with other cats. That makes it harder to work them into a natural setting.”

In Kansas, too, wildlife authorities offered no assurances of a happy ending. Officer Jeff Gayer of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks said Smith is a licensed breeder, and no laws prevent him from breeding African lions.

“Great, they’re coming home,” said Gayer, who had seen the cats on newscasts. “They’ll probably get off the plane but end up on a truck headed somewhere else. . . . Folks tend to buy these cuddly little babies; then they grow up.”

In Kansas, lions are just part of a growing problem of the lucrative black market for exotic animals and animal parts, he said.

“It’s a big, big business that is growing by leaps and bounds,” Gayer said. “Animals and animal parts. Bear gallbladders are on the market for Asian medicines. Antlers and horns from elk and deer are big right now. So are eagle parts and feathers. Ostrich eggs sell for $2,000 to $5,000, and people don’t even know if they’ll hatch.”

Smith said that anyone who wants to buy a lion at his ranch must have a license and that he knows nothing about underground dealing in lions.

“There’s not a black market around here that I know anything about. If someone wants to buy a lion, they have to show me a license,” said Smith, who sells the cats for less than $1,000 each.

“There’s nothing wrong with people buying them as long as they have a license. What happens after they leave here, I don’t know,” he said.

It’s the buyer’s job to learn the laws in states outside of Kansas, Smith said.

“I know that states like California don’t allow the lions in,” he said. “But it’s up to the buyer to check that out.”

But Lawrence said the lions also are not California’s responsibility. The state has stopped issuing permits to keep wild cats for pets.

“The main thing now is to get the lions back to their point of origin,” he said. “We don’t need them here.”

His decision was supported by Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace J. Wade. The cats are not needed for any criminal investigation, he said.

“We’re not going to slap an exhibit tag on them. It makes no sense to hang on to them,” said Wade, who added that a decision on what criminal charges will be pursued will be made next week.

Authorities were tipped off to the lions’ whereabouts by an ad in a local newspaper offering them for sale for $5,000.