Death and starvation revealed in China zoos
Source: Xinhua |
March 26, 2010, Friday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
ANIMALS, including large and endangered species, have been found starving and dying in a number of Chinese zoos as a result of neglect and mismanagement.
The most shocking discovery was a mass burial pit filled with animal carcasses and left uncovered since mid 2009 at one zoo in northeast China.
The cases have emerged in the wake of the deaths of 11 tigers in a zoo in northeast China's Liaoning Province early this year, and include:
A zoo in southwest China leasing out tigers for circus-style performances in order to pay for food;
Big cats being fed chicken bones "because meat is too expensive;" and
A lethal illness spreading unchecked through animals at a zoo because managers could not afford veterinary care.
Many of the problems are a direct result of China's mass urbanization over the past 30 years.
With the rising tide of people streaming into cities, property developers have covetously eyed prime real estate occupied by traditionally popular inner city zoos.
The demand for city center land has prompted many zoo owners to move to more spacious sites outside urban areas where they can build up stocks and free animals from confined cages.
However, these new sites are often too far from population centers or just inconveniently located for the public - and visitor numbers have plunged with drastic results.
"All these relocated zoos that we know of are doing badly," said Xie Zhong, deputy secretary general of the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens.
The association represents 200 zoos, double its membership of 100 when it was founded in the 1980s.
"Most of our members are affiliated to state-owned entities," Xie said. "We don't have the figures for private zoos or safari parks, which have been mushrooming across China."
She cited the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo, where the 11 Siberian tigers died of malnutrition earlier this year, and the former Harbin Zoo, now the Harbin Northern Forest Zoo, in northeast Heliongjiang Province as facilities that suffered from relocation.
"It seems a good thing that old zoos are replaced by new safari parks where animals can live in the open air instead of cages, but new zoos are far from residential areas and fewer people visit them, slashing their main income," said Hu Zhongping, secretary general of the CAZG.
"Privatization is usually the last straw because governments stop supporting them."
A 20-square-meter pit, 3m deep, where dead animals were dumped instead of being cremated as required by law, was found at the Harbin zoo.
Manager Li Xiaowei said the zoo lacked cash to build an animal incinerator.
Fourteen big animals, including tigers, lions and leopards, died in the first half of 2008 at the zoo, said Zhang Xinru, in charge of feeding.
Li admitted big carnivores, such as tigers, had been fed chicken bones instead of expensive beef or lamb, which had made the animals weak.
One zoo worker, on condition of anonymity, told how a Mongolian gazelle had contracted an unidentified infectious disease, but the zoo could not afford veterinary treatment.
The illness spread, killing more than 20 gazelles and deer that were also infected.
Malnourished animals were reported by Yan Zhanfang, a zookeeper in Kuerle City, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
She said conditions at Kuerle Zoo deteriorated markedly after its relocation from the downtown area to an outlying district last year.
Tigers and lions were among the animals suffering from an impoverished diet.
At Guilin Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Park established in 1993 in Guilin City, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, managers have begun leasing out some of its 1,500 tigers to perform in circus-type acts in order to raise money to feed them.
The most shocking discovery was a mass burial pit filled with animal carcasses and left uncovered since mid 2009 at one zoo in northeast China.
The cases have emerged in the wake of the deaths of 11 tigers in a zoo in northeast China's Liaoning Province early this year, and include:
A zoo in southwest China leasing out tigers for circus-style performances in order to pay for food;
Big cats being fed chicken bones "because meat is too expensive;" and
A lethal illness spreading unchecked through animals at a zoo because managers could not afford veterinary care.
Many of the problems are a direct result of China's mass urbanization over the past 30 years.
With the rising tide of people streaming into cities, property developers have covetously eyed prime real estate occupied by traditionally popular inner city zoos.
The demand for city center land has prompted many zoo owners to move to more spacious sites outside urban areas where they can build up stocks and free animals from confined cages.
However, these new sites are often too far from population centers or just inconveniently located for the public - and visitor numbers have plunged with drastic results.
"All these relocated zoos that we know of are doing badly," said Xie Zhong, deputy secretary general of the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens.
The association represents 200 zoos, double its membership of 100 when it was founded in the 1980s.
"Most of our members are affiliated to state-owned entities," Xie said. "We don't have the figures for private zoos or safari parks, which have been mushrooming across China."
She cited the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo, where the 11 Siberian tigers died of malnutrition earlier this year, and the former Harbin Zoo, now the Harbin Northern Forest Zoo, in northeast Heliongjiang Province as facilities that suffered from relocation.
"It seems a good thing that old zoos are replaced by new safari parks where animals can live in the open air instead of cages, but new zoos are far from residential areas and fewer people visit them, slashing their main income," said Hu Zhongping, secretary general of the CAZG.
"Privatization is usually the last straw because governments stop supporting them."
A 20-square-meter pit, 3m deep, where dead animals were dumped instead of being cremated as required by law, was found at the Harbin zoo.
Manager Li Xiaowei said the zoo lacked cash to build an animal incinerator.
Fourteen big animals, including tigers, lions and leopards, died in the first half of 2008 at the zoo, said Zhang Xinru, in charge of feeding.
Li admitted big carnivores, such as tigers, had been fed chicken bones instead of expensive beef or lamb, which had made the animals weak.
One zoo worker, on condition of anonymity, told how a Mongolian gazelle had contracted an unidentified infectious disease, but the zoo could not afford veterinary treatment.
The illness spread, killing more than 20 gazelles and deer that were also infected.
Malnourished animals were reported by Yan Zhanfang, a zookeeper in Kuerle City, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
She said conditions at Kuerle Zoo deteriorated markedly after its relocation from the downtown area to an outlying district last year.
Tigers and lions were among the animals suffering from an impoverished diet.
At Guilin Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Park established in 1993 in Guilin City, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, managers have begun leasing out some of its 1,500 tigers to perform in circus-type acts in order to raise money to feed them.
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