Man to live in cage with his lions for 5 wks

• NeverSayGoodBye

  9 Aug 11, 16:41

  

   

  

   

  Into the lions' den... a zoo owner is so passionate about his charges that he plans to live with them for five long weeks, sleeping in their hay and even eating the meat that is put through the bars.
  

  Alexander Pylyshenko, 40, has spent his life studying lions and believes that he will survive the weeks he will live exclusively with them.

  He plans to climb into the enclosure with the beasts at his own private zoo in the yard of his house in the small Ukrainian city of Vasylivka, some 500km from the capital Kiev.

  
  Mr Pylyshenko will be fed meat through the cage at the same times as the lions and he will even sleep on hay on the floor
  
  

  During the five weeks in the cage he will bond with Katya, an African lioness, and her male partner Samson.
  

  Katya is pregnant and is due to give birth to the cubs while he is inside, which could make her fiercely over-protective.
  

  
  
  

  The zoo owner has installed a toilet and a shower inside the cage so that he can maintain his personal hygiene.

  But he will have to avoid shampoo, deodorant, shower gels, beer and cigarettes because the animals dislike sharp odours.

  Mr Pylyshenko hopes that his weeks in the cage will raise money for charity and highlight what he sees as the poor treatment across the world of lions in captivity.

  'One of the lions is pregnant, I plan to see the cubs being born, and spend some time with them but then I will move out,' he told the Austrian Times

  'The living conditions will be absolutely the same for the lions and me. We will sleep on wooden floorboards and have food given to us through bars.

  'There will be four webcams planted in the cage. They will provide both experimental integrity and broadcast the ''reality show'' on the internet.'

  Mr Pylyshenko plans to paint pictures of the animals during his stint in their living quarters and the proceeds of the art will be given to charity.