Messi The Puma - Rescued - But 2/3 the size of a normal Puma.
I am familiar with this story. I believe they also adopted a cheetah later. Many of the big cats in low-budget "petting zoos" throughout Europe (esp. E. Europe/Ukraine) intentionally malnourish their big cats to keep the cubs smaller/more docile by raising them on water-down cows milk, leaving them several malnourished esp. Vit. A deficient so they have poor bone and esp. tendon/cartilage structure.
This past year I believe Congress banned private ownership of big cats unless in a certified sanctuaries/zoo. I know you may think "government overregulation/over-reach again" but after Tiger King and realizing most people, esp. the super-wealthy like Mike Tyson or Michael Jackson acquire these animals without knowledge of their behavior or medical needs, I can't say this is a bad thing providing the emphasis is on ensuring proper care of the animals and not on just a tax revenue source for another in-efficient agency.
BTW there is a project, I know the leader's guy's name is David and one project is in Namibia, that has successfully re-introduced captive borne lions back into the wild given in an effort to repopulate because of their devastating decline (they are on "vulnerable" endangered status list, going from 1 Million in 1900 to less than 15,000-23,000 wild lions today). I remember a video by the Lion Whisperer Kevin Richardson, who put a Go-Pro on the back of a lioness he hand-raised from day one, that instinctually knew how to stalk and kill (by suffocation, as these cats do) a waterbuck without ever witnessing it done by another lion. Its instinctual, these arguments that captive lions won't survive not their own is BS. They absolutely DO learn some things from their mothers that I think are more habitat dependent (i.e. learning to avoid crocodiles, which animals to avoid because they will retaliate and crush you etc.), but some thing such as hunting are clearly instinctual. So sad to see an area, like Sabi Sands, with too much lion drama because the lions are repopulating in too small of an area forcing them to engage each other more often than typical in a wild lion's life. I do have think the lions could repopulate if given the land territory to do so, but given China's increased influence and ownership of Africa we will see continued decline as the lion bone trade expands.
I made a separate thread last night after on the Wolf/lion story after I saw a brief video.