Probe focuses on death of 11 tigers
By Staff Reporters |
March 14, 2010, Sunday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
OFFICIALS from the State Forestry Administration yesterday started a probe into the death of 11 Siberian tigers at a zoo in northeast China's Liaoning Province where more than 100 employees are reported to have been on strike for three days.
The State Forestry team arrived in Shenyang City yesterday to join local police and wildlife preservation authorities investigating the tigers' deaths in the past three months at Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo.
The zoo has been closed and officials said tiger carcasses have been held for an autopsy by experts from Shenyang Agriculture University.
A preliminary report from the zoo claimed the tigers died of various diseases including lung abscess, heart failure, enteritis and nephritis.
However earlier media reports said the animals died from malnutrition rather than infectious diseases and cited Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station.
According to the reports, the zoo fed the tigers on cheap chicken bones because it was not doing well financially. Two tigers from the zoo mauled a worker in November 2009. He 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 affected their health, according to Liu.
Zoo management officials acknowledged they couldn't feed all the animals due to a lack of resources.
Employees went on strike over wages outstanding for 18 months and the zoo had to send administrative office staff to help feed the animals, according to zoo official Wu Xi.
Since November, the Shenyang Qipanshan Administration Committee has provided the zoo with feed worth 18,000 yuan (US$2,636) a day.
But many tigers were already suffering intestinal infections or kidney failure because of the lack of food and died, Xinhua news agency reported.
Thirty other animals also died in the period between last November and this February, according to China News Service.
Established in 2000, the zoo had an animal population of 518 in February this year.
The State Forestry team arrived in Shenyang City yesterday to join local police and wildlife preservation authorities investigating the tigers' deaths in the past three months at Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo.
The zoo has been closed and officials said tiger carcasses have been held for an autopsy by experts from Shenyang Agriculture University.
A preliminary report from the zoo claimed the tigers died of various diseases including lung abscess, heart failure, enteritis and nephritis.
However earlier media reports said the animals died from malnutrition rather than infectious diseases and cited Liu Xiaoqiang, vice chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station.
According to the reports, the zoo fed the tigers on cheap chicken bones because it was not doing well financially. Two tigers from the zoo mauled a worker in November 2009. He 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 affected their health, according to Liu.
Zoo management officials acknowledged they couldn't feed all the animals due to a lack of resources.
Employees went on strike over wages outstanding for 18 months and the zoo had to send administrative office staff to help feed the animals, according to zoo official Wu Xi.
Since November, the Shenyang Qipanshan Administration Committee has provided the zoo with feed worth 18,000 yuan (US$2,636) a day.
But many tigers were already suffering intestinal infections or kidney failure because of the lack of food and died, Xinhua news agency reported.
Thirty other animals also died in the period between last November and this February, according to China News Service.
Established in 2000, the zoo had an animal population of 518 in February this year.
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