Belarusian veterinarians allowed a giraffe, three zebras, two antelope and a llama heading for a Russian circus to cross the border with Poland on Saturday after a 24-hour delay.
Russian State Circus (Rosgostsirk) Deputy General Director Sergei Nesterov bought the animals from a German circus to perform at the Nizhny Novgorod Circus approximately 400 kilometers east of Moscow.
"We have already spent 24 hours at this checkpoint and I was very anxious about the life of the giraffe, zebras, antelope and the llama," Nesterov said adding that they were running short of provisions and fuel needed to heat the truck carrying the animals.
He said that it were journalists who reported about this problem and thus helped the circus animals continue their way to destination.
The animals had to spend a day at the Kozlovichi border checkpoint between Belarus and Poland because of a glitch in paperwork.
A similar incident took place on the Russian-Ukrainian border in the beginning of 2009, when 20 camels were held up for two weeks in freezing temperatures before being allowed to transit Ukraine. The incident resulted in the death of one animal.
MOSCOW, March 26 (RIA Novosti)
