Rescues lions from war-torn Ukraine.

0:00 Speaker 1 With us today is Andrew Saban. And Andrew is a very philanthropic person. I’ve been one of the most philanthropic I have met. He had a mission last week to save some lion cubs. Andrew Saban, tell us your experience and what you got accomplished fast week.

0:22 Speaker 2 Well, it’s actually way before this started. Ten months ago. When I had gotten I was working in I do a lot of work in Ukraine where I built three orphanages and to live at one hundred and twenty ambulances.

0:37 And I’ve been working with the International Fund for Animal Welfare and I was feeding basically supplying food and veterinaria help for the people in Ukraine who had pets and they needed food. And I get a call one day from my partner, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, and said, look, we’ve got these four lion cubs. Can we get them

1:03 flown back to the United States the uh The three of the four were found in a duffel bag at the train station in uh in Odessa, Ukraine. These are now one month old, and the fourth one was found by the roadside zoo, also a month old in Kiev and they I was asked if I could help fly

1:32 them back and get them to a wild cat sanctuary in the United States. And so I conferred with my partner and my jet company, which is flexed Jet. You I assume heard from them and they have a European operation and they had a G six point fifty flying back from Warsaw, Poland to Chicago. And so with their help,

2:01 me supplying fifty thousand dollars Ifaw fifty thousand and Flexjet in kind, we flew the four lions on the G six fifty to Chicago. From that point, they entered an air condition a heated van, and I don’t remember it was winter, so it was eleven months ago. Maybe that was it was warm then or ten months ago. We

2:28 drove them to Sandstone, Minnesota, which is about an hour and fifteen minutes from Duluth. So on my way back from Colorado, I took my plane up to Duluth. I wanted to see the sanctuary. I wanted to see how these lions were doing, the four will they work hubs.

2:50 I was amazed how well they’re doing. They’re now eleven months old, and I feel good about saving them. It’s a really good feeling.

3:00 Speaker 1 Well, that is wonderful news. You know I love animals, I love cats, I love dogs. Uh and that is you know that that it makes me feel good in my heart. I’m sure it does for the same as you have you done similar situations at that saving save full line cups. Tell us to give us another adventure you’ve.

3:21 Speaker 2 Had, John, you have no You got to come to my house and see my five pet pigs too when you have a chance. But yes, I’ve been very involved. A while back, we had Hurricane Dorian. Do you remember that in the Bahamas, and there were hundreds hundreds of dogs and cats stranded on these islands. They couldn’t find

3:47 out who they belonged to, they couldn’t find the odors. I charged. I charted seven planes and bought seven train loads, uh plane loads of cat and dogs, cats and dogs back to the mainland US and it distributed them to various shelters. I’ve been very involved with saving wildlife around the world from earthquakes, tornadoes, everything, And that was actually

4:16 my first experience with actually lions. It’s mostly been more common animals, like saving dogs and cats and things.

4:26 Speaker 1 Well, Andrew Saban, thank you so much for coming on WABC and telling you about your experience, and I think you’ve done God’s work, and God bless you, and God bless America. Thank you so much.

4:39 Speaker 2 You’re welcome and I will continue to do so. Thank you. John.

4:42 Speaker 1 Let WABC know anytime you do something similar, and we’ll let the people know.

4:49 Speaker 2 Oh okay, terrific. I’m doing so much right now, all right, thank you, thank you,