Story of a Pet Puma in Poland !
Posted on the 13 July 2020 by Sampathkumar Sampath
Sure you know Puma brand, a
German multinational corporation that designs and manufactures athletic and
casual footwear, apparel and accessories. The company was founded in 1948 by Rudolf
Dassler.
In 1924, Rudolf and his brother Adolf Dassler had jointly formed the
company Gebrüder Dassler Schuhfabrik (Dassler Brothers Shoe Factory). The
relationship between the two brothers deteriorated until the two agreed to
split in 1948, forming two separate entities, Adidas and Puma. Both companies
are currently based in Herzogenaurach, Bavaria, Germany.
Following the split from
his brother, Rudolf originally registered the newly established company as Ruda
(derived from Rudolf Dassler, as Adidas was based on Adi Dassler), but later
changed the name to Puma. Puma's earliest logo consisted of a square and beast
jumping through a D, which was registered, along with the company's name, in
1948. Puma's shoe and clothing designs feature the Puma logo.Puma is a genus in the family Felidae that
contains the cougar, also known as the puma and mountain lion, among other
names.
After
Brexit, there have been some talks on whether there would be a Polexit ? Ever
since winning the general election of Poland in 2015, the Polish government led
by the Law and Justice Party (PiS), has continuously
pushed the country to adopt a series of judicial reforms supposedly to drive
out the last strands of communism from the judicial set-up. Poland,
which is also an integral member of the European Union, has been confronted
time and again by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) for its questionable
approach towards the judiciary and upholding the intrinsic values of rule of
law. Latest of which came on 8th April, when the ECJ stayed the functioning of
a chamber designed to scrutinize and punish the judges of the Polish Supreme
Court, deepening the legal tussle between the two bodies.
Poland's
incumbent President Andrzej Duda has narrowly beaten challenger Rafal
Trzaskowski in Sunday's presidential vote. The National Electoral
Commission said Mr Duda had won 51.2% of the votes. It is Poland's slimmest
presidential election victory since the end of communism in 1989. One of the
major issues of the election was the future of the country's strained relations
with the European Union. Mr Duda is a social conservative allied with the
government led by the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party, while Mr
Trzaskowski is the socially liberal mayor of Warsaw. Mr Duda's win is expected
to lead to further controversial reforms to the judiciary and continued
opposition to abortion and gay rights. During the
campaign Mr Duda came under heavy criticism after he said LGBT rights were an
"ideology" more destructive than communism.
Andrzej Sebastian Duda born
in 1972, is a Polish lawyer and politician who has served as President of
Poland since 6 Aug 2015. Before becoming president, Andrzej Duda was a member
of Polish Lower House (Sejm) from 2011 to 2014 and the European Parliament from
2014 to 2015. In February 2018, Duda said that he
would sign into law Amendment to the Act on the Institute of National
Remembrance, making it illegal to accuse 'the Polish nation' of complicity in
the Holocaust and other Nazi German atrocities, a measure that has roiled
relations with Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu going as far as
accusing the Polish government of "Holocaust denial".
The Zoo in Poznań is one of the oldest zoological
gardens in Poland, located in the city of Poznań, Greater Poland Voivodeship. It
was founded in 1874 and was included on the register of objects of cultural
heritage in 1978 as a unique example of a vivarium. The zoo started as a few
animals kept by a restaurant owner in the early 1870s.The zoo traces its origins to 1871, when a
group of local bowlers and regulars of a restaurant at Starogard-Poznań railway
station in Jeżyce decided to give President of Bowling Association an unusual
birthday present. Each of the bowling players brought a different animal
including a pig, a goat, a sheep, a cat, a rabbit, a squirrel, a goose, a duck,
a chicken, a peacock as well as a trained bear and a monkey. This small
menagerie was gradually expanded thanks to animals given by local inhabitants
of Poznań and eventually became the foundation of the future zoo. In 1874, the
joint stock company called "The Zoological Garden" was formally
established.
In an interesting report
MailOnline states that hundreds of police have been on the hunt for Afghan war veteran and his pet PUMA after 'he
pulled knife on zoo keepers' and fled to the forest to avoid handing over the
big cat in Poland.
Around 200 Polish police
are hunting for an Afghan war veteran and his pet puma after he fled into the
forest to avoid handing over the big cat. Kamil Stanek, an Afghan war veteran is alleged to have threatened Poznan city zoo
keepers with a knife when they turned up at his house in the southern town of
Myslowice. Poznan Zoo, which is around 200 miles away from the forest where
Stanek has fled to, allege that the war veteran has been taking the puma around
the country and charging £600 for people who want to pet her.'It's not a cuddly toy. It's one of the most
dangerous animals in the world and it could be a real threat to people's
lives,' said Ewa Zgrabczynska, head of Poznan Zoo. The zoo alleges that when they went to
Stanek's house they discovered the puma was living in a cramped, filthy cage.
It is claimed that Stanek
- who was ordered to hand over the Puma to Poznan Zoo in January - has
effectively been on the run with Nubia (name of the Puma) since then. Stanek bought Nubia six years ago in the Czech
Republic but keeping pumas is against the law in Poland. Stanek, who
purportedly runs an animal sanctuary with his wife and has tens of thousands of
social media followers on his Projekt Puma Facebook page, posted an update for
his fans yesterday. In the post Stanek filmed himself stroking the big cat and
wrote as the caption: 'Thank you for your messages and support. Let the media
see what an army we have.'
Strange are
the ways of people !
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
13.7.2020.