Charisma Mufasa, former NFL football star-turned-recording artist who’s best known for the hit song “Out On Bond,” is finalizing plans to open a lions sanctuary following mentorship by big cat expert Mario Tabraue from the hit Netflix series Tiger King.
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Five years in the making, Mufasa reached out to Tabraue about the opportunity in 2018. Mufasa is the current owner of a Lion after researching all the information and taking all the necessary steps and precautions to legally acquire the animal. For Mufasa, the sanctuary will bring up-to-date awareness to the nation about an animal he has been fascinated with since he was 12.
The rising hip-hop star displayed his infatuation for the animal in his music video, “Hard,” which saw him rap in a cage surrounded by three roaming lions. “I have never been scared of lions,” he says in a press release. “I feel like they are my spirit animal. I always saw something great in them.”
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Mario Tabraue is the current executive of the Zoological Wildlife Foundation. Outside exotic animals, Tabraue currently has a limited series centered around his life in the works with American Horror Story writer Adam Penn. Before Tiger King, Tabraue was known as a former drug trafficker widely hailed as the inspiration for Al Pacino’s iconic role of Tony Montana in Scarface.
In related news, President Joe Biden is expected to swiftly sign the new legislation, which requires that only certified zoos and universities are allowed to hold lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars and other large cats, following its passage in the US Senate this week. The House of Representatives voted for the bill, called the Big Cat Public Safety Act, in July.
