Grant in Memory of Pollyanna Cheetah

  To honour the memory of our beloved cheetah Pollyanna – named by The Born Free Foundation in honour of their much loved patron – we have given a grant of £3,000.00 for improvements to the cheetah enclosures at the Ensessa Kotteh sanctuary in Ethiopia.

The staff at the sanctuary reached out to the Foundation telling us that three more cheetah had arrived at the centre in the space of just six months, all of which require lifetime care bringing the total number of cheetahs at the centre to nine.

adly Cheetahs are commonly trafficked animals in and around Ethiopia, with up to 300 or more being exported every year to be kept as exotic pets There are believed to be only around 7,000 cheetahs left in the wild.

As well as housing cheetah for life, the sanctuary  helps the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority, to confiscate animals by collecting and housing them, often with very short notice, helping them to do their important work in crackingdown on illegal trade and giving the confiscated cheetahs a comfortable life. Cheetahs at the Centre enjoy spacious, naturalistic enclosures that allow them the privacy, enrichment and lifelong care that they need.

Ensessa Kotteh is the only sanctuary in the whole of Ethiopia that allows these beautiful animals – one of Pollyanna’s favourite subjects –  to have a second chance. In order for the centre to continue to provide the best possible lifetime care to their cheetah residents, our Foundation has helped to fund essential maintenance and upgrading of enclosures that house four of the cheetahsThe upgrades included maintenance of night houses & fencing; installation of new fence posts;  improvements & replacement of old mesh and worn-out posts. This has created more secure housing for the cheetahs in terms of escape risk, breach risk by wild animals, and even risk of theft, since sadly cheetahs are still seen as objects with which to make money through the wildlife ‘pet’ trade.

The maintenance will allow the existing enclosures to be used for a long time – much more cost effective than replacing them completely.  These high quality enclosures can now also be used for new cheetahs which are likely to arrive in the coming months and years giving the sanctuary the ability to react quickly in confiscations carried out by the Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority.  This is very important as a slow reaction could result in traders passing the cheetahs in question on in secret, taking away the evidence and preventing the cheetah from getting their second chance at a good life – as enjoyed by our lovely Pollyanna cheetah.