Russian Engel District Court on Wednesday started considering the claim of the city prosecutor Vladimir Klimov on seizing Lion Maya from the Yeroyan family, Vzglyad-info reports.

Judge Natalya Savenkova presided over the hearing. The trial was attended by Deputy Prosecutor Maxim Kashen-Bazhenov, defender and owner of the lion Eghish Yeroyan, as well as his attorney Larisa Petri.

The representative of the prosecutor’s office asked the court to seize the beast from the Yeroyan family and ban the owner from keeping it at home. The deputy prosecutor substantiated his claim by the fact that the lion is kept in semi-free conditions and has not undergone necessary vaccination.  

Yeroyan’s defense asked the deputy prosecutor to explain what he meant by “semi-free conditions,” to which the latter noted that the “housing conditions do not correspond to those required.”

According to the attorney, Maya has its cage.   

The judge decided to extend the session till May 22 in connection with the absence of the third party—the Hunting Facility Committee of Saratov province.

On April 24, Lion Maya attacked a 15-year-old boy near one of the houses in Turgenev street. The boy suffered an injury in the form of bites of the soft tissues of his limbs and sought medical assistance. Prosecutor of Engels, Vladimir Klimov, turned to the court demanding to seize the lion from the Yeroyan family and hand it to the zoo.