Marek Zakrzewski/PAP

The Animal Advocacy and Protection (AAP) foundation in Spain on Wednesday thanked Poland for saving the five tigers which arrived at their animal rescue centre. In October, tigers being smuggled from Italy to Russia were stranded for days at the Polish-Belarusian border.

Subsequently one of the ten tigers died.

The Animal Advocacy and Protection organization, which took over five of the nine surviving tigers, stated on Wednesday that the animals were under the standing care of specialists and their condition was steadily improving.

"We thank our Polish friends, who displayed great involvement in helping the tigers," AAP told PAP.

On Saturday, October 26, a transport of ten tigers from Italy to Dagestan in the Russian Federation was stopped from entering Belarus via the eastern-Polish Koroszczyn crossing because of lacking veterinary documents. The animals, which had been passed by Polish border controllers, were sent back to the Polish side of the crossing by Belarusian border guards and remained in Koroszczyn until Wednesday. Seven tigers reached the Poznan zoo shortly after midnight on Thursday, the remaining two were taken to a private zoo in Czluchow, northern Poland.

Five animals were sent to the APP foundation thanks to support from Dutch organisation Animal Advocates. The remaining four will stay in Poznan and Czluchow.