Man is mauled to death and EATEN by pet lion days after buying the beast to keep in his back garden

By TARYN PEDLER

Published: 13:33 BST, 12 May 2025 | Updated: 13:40 BST, 12 May 2025

A man was mauled to death and eaten by his pet lion just days after buying the beast to keep in his back garden.

A resident of Najaf, southern Iraq, was horrifically attacked by the predator before it consumed most of his body on Thursday.

‘Today in a garden in the city of Kufa in Najaf, a citizen was attacked by a lion in his own garden and died immediately,’ Mufid Tahir, spokesperson for the Najaf Police, told local news site Rudaw.

He added that the lion because the lion had eaten a large portion of the man’s body, and because the animal refused to leave the remains, it had to be killed. 

The victim, 50-year-old Aqil Fakhr al-Din, had reportedly been keeping lions and other wild animals in his garden for several years, according to Tahir.

But on Thursday, the predator launched a surprise attack on its trainer before ferociously mauling him to death and devouring him.

One of the victim’s neighbours reportedly intervened and shot the lion with a Kalashnikov rifle, killing it with seven bullets, as per local TV reports.

But by the time the lion was killed, it was too late for al-Din. He was immediately transferred to Al-Sadr Medical City Hospital in Najaf but did not survive due to the extent of his injuries.

The victim, 50-year-old Aqil Fakhr al-Din, had reportedly been keeping lions and other wild animals in his garden for several years

One of the victim’s neighbours reportedly intervened and shot the lion with a Kalashnikov rifle, killing it with seven bullets, as per local TV reports

Grisly images showed the man covered in blood as he laid on a hospital bed and an official investigation has also reportedly been opened into the circumstances of the incident.

A clip of the dead lion in the garden is also making rounds on social media, raising concerns about how al-Din was able to keep the wild animal on his property. 

According to local reports, the victim had purchased the lion just days before the tragedy, with the intention of raising and taming it at home.  

Iraq continues to grapple with rampant illegal wildlife trafficking, a problem exacerbated by years of conflict, weak enforcement, and high demand for rare species. 

Poachers and smugglers routinely exploit the country’s lack of regulation, targeting falcons from the southern plains and birds and foxes from the remote mountains of the Kurdistan Region. 

Despite signing the Convention on the Protection of Animals in 2014, which aims to curb the global trade in wildlife, Iraq remains a hotspot for both the export of native species and the smuggling in of exotic animals for sale on the black market. 

The tragic incident in Iraq comes after a zookeeper was fatally attacked and eaten alive by lions after going into their cage to ‘impress his girlfriend’ in December.

:
Man is mauled to death and EATEN by pet lion days after buying the beast to keep in his back garden

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk