The pet issue

Libyan leader Muamar Gadhafi's son refused to leave his two pet tigers in Libya while he studies at university here, the Austrian press rep...

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Libyan leader Muamar Gadhafi’s son refused to leave his two pet tigers in Libya while he studies at university here, the Austrian press reported on Friday. In an interview with the weekly publication News, Gadhafi’s son Saif, 25, explained how his two tigers are temporarily housed in a zoo in the Austrian capital. "I bought them from a Milanese zoo for $15,000 and they have grown up with me," Saif told the News.

"I didn’t want to be without them, so I found them a little place in Vienna. I go to the Schonbrunn zoo every two days, I feed them and stroke them," explained Saif, adding "they are my little cats".

Gadhafi’s son complained in the interview of discrimination against Arabs, referring to the diplomatic crisis which was narrowly averted between Tripoli and Vienna in November when Austrian police refused to extend his residence permit.

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The permit was finally granted by the Austrian Foreign Affairs Ministry, after Tripoli warned they would retaliate by targetting Austrians visiting Libya. Saif is studying economics at the International Business School, which is a subsidiary of the California State University.

The Libyan leader’s son admitted that he lives under armed guard in a sumptuous house, which the News said he rents for $8,000 a month.

Saif added that he was not pressed by his father to come to Vienna. "We phone each other every so often," he said, adding that his father was the "only person engaged in the fight" for the rights of the Libyan people.