Meet The Wealthy Afghan Who Houses His$20,000 Pet Lion On His Rooftop

We've heard about wealthy people around the world and the kind
ofthings they buy with their money, and for Kabul's wealthy elite some
things are de rigueur: armed guards, a marble-clad mansion, a
blacked-out SUV. But in the Afghanistan city, one man has taken the
flamboyant lifestyle a step further and bought a lion.
Mohammad Shafiq, a 42-year-old businessman, is very proud of his
growling pet, which spends its days prowling a roof terrace at his
sprawling home in a posh residential area of centralKabul.
"A friend said he had a lion in Kandahar and wanted to sell it to me,"
Shafiq, who runs a construction company, told AFP. "He knew I loved
dogs and birds, butthis was more than whatI was expecting.
"I had seen lions on television and in the zoo, but never this close.
So without any hesitation, I said I will buy it. To me, lions are
brave and I respect them. Knowing I could buy one was very exciting."
The lion, still unnamed, is not chained up and has no collar and
spends much of the day lying quietly in a corner of the roof terrace
above a storeroom, coming downeach evening to eat.
Shafiq says he spends about $1,000 a month employing a caretaker to
feed it fresh meat boughtfrom a butcher and also paying a vet to check
its health regularly.
Tens of billions of dollars have flowed into Afghanistan in the 12
years since the US-led invasion that toppled the Taliban. Some Afghans
have become very rich asa result and they are not shy when it comes to
flaunting their wealth.
Kabul is dotted with the flashy houses of the nouveau riche, dripping
with chandeliers and nicknamed "poppy palaces" – hinting at the shady
provenance of at least some of the money in the world's leading opium
producing nation.