11 tigers die at poorly kept zoo
By Li Xinran |
March 12, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AT least 11 Siberian tigers died over the past 3 months in a zoo in northeast China's Liaoning Province, local animal protection officials said yesterday.
Six of them died in one day, Liaoning Television reported.
All the tigers were from Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in the provincial capital. The tigers died of malnutrition rather than infectious diseases, Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, told Xinhua news agency.
The zoo only fed the tigers cheap chicken bones since the zoo was not doing well financially, Liu said.
Local television said the zoo's losses ran to millions of yuan per year.
Two hungry tigers from the zoo mauled a zoo worker in November. The worker was seriously injured but survived the attack.
After the incident, Shenyang Administration of Work Safety asked the zoo to keep the tigers in cages, which further weakened their health, Liu said.
Since November, the Shenyang Qipanshan Administration Committee had been providing the zoo with appropriate feed worth of 18,000 yuan (US$2,636) a day. But many tigers already had intestinal infections or kidney failure caused by the lack of food and died later, Xinhua said.
The tigers were raised in narrow and humid cages while each of them was fed two chicken skeletons a day.
Other animals in the zoo, treated no better than those tigers, are always hungry and the zoo keepers have complained about meager wages, local media said. Many employees said the zoo owed them salaries for a year.
The zoo was often connected with scandals after its debut at the end of 2000, Liaoning Evening News said.
It shut down at the end of 2006 and didn't resume operation until receiving a government allocation.
About two years ago, starving Siberian tigers in the zoo turned to cannibalism, with one among them killed by its peers.
The operator of zoo has been accustomed to demand government allocation by pointing to the animals' poor condition, according to Liaoning Evening News.
Six of them died in one day, Liaoning Television reported.
All the tigers were from Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in the provincial capital. The tigers died of malnutrition rather than infectious diseases, Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, told Xinhua news agency.
The zoo only fed the tigers cheap chicken bones since the zoo was not doing well financially, Liu said.
Local television said the zoo's losses ran to millions of yuan per year.
Two hungry tigers from the zoo mauled a zoo worker in November. The worker was seriously injured but survived the attack.
After the incident, Shenyang Administration of Work Safety asked the zoo to keep the tigers in cages, which further weakened their health, Liu said.
Since November, the Shenyang Qipanshan Administration Committee had been providing the zoo with appropriate feed worth of 18,000 yuan (US$2,636) a day. But many tigers already had intestinal infections or kidney failure caused by the lack of food and died later, Xinhua said.
The tigers were raised in narrow and humid cages while each of them was fed two chicken skeletons a day.
Other animals in the zoo, treated no better than those tigers, are always hungry and the zoo keepers have complained about meager wages, local media said. Many employees said the zoo owed them salaries for a year.
The zoo was often connected with scandals after its debut at the end of 2000, Liaoning Evening News said.
It shut down at the end of 2006 and didn't resume operation until receiving a government allocation.
About two years ago, starving Siberian tigers in the zoo turned to cannibalism, with one among them killed by its peers.
The operator of zoo has been accustomed to demand government allocation by pointing to the animals' poor condition, according to Liaoning Evening News.
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