Zoo's creatures caged in misery

[Guest guest]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0210170308oct17.story

 

Zoo's creatures caged in misery

 

By Michael A. Lev

Tribune foreign correspondent

Published October 17, 2002

 

KABUL, Afghanistan -- The Chinese government, over the

objection of two American zoo organizations, has

presented the dilapidated, bankrupt Kabul Zoo two

prized bears.

 

The bears paced unsettlingly the other day in a

cramped, battered iron cage, taunted by young men who

climbed the security barrier to stick their fingers

inside the bars.

 

Nearby, a group of teens threw pebbles at the monkeys.

 

In the director's office, a zoo official showed off

what he said passed for the veterinary clinic: a

drawer in a rusty filing cabinet containing a bottle

of antiseptic and a few other meager supplies. There

is nothing in the drawer to treat Donatella, another

zoo bear, who has had a horrifically disfiguring

infection on her snout for at least eight months.

 

In some ways, the crumbling, bullet-scarred Kabul Zoo

is in more pathetic shape today than when it was being

bombed by warlords during Afghanistan's civil war.

 

Its crisis could easily be solved. There is $350,000

in American donations for the zoo that cannot be

turned over because of political infighting, a lack of

communication and incompetent management in the

capital.

 

`Innocent hostages'

 

" The animals continue to be innocent hostages, " said

John Walsh of the World Society for the Protection of

Animals, or WSPA, who spent time at the zoo in

February helping establish water and electricity

supplies. He is furious that winter is coming and

little has been done to help the animals.

 

The situation is so confused that the overburdened zoo

director, Sheeraqa Omar, seems unaware that he is

caught in the middle of a bureaucratic drama.

 

For months, Omar has been waiting anxiously for the

$350,000 to arrive, oblivious to the fact that the

North Carolina Zoo, which has accepted responsibility

for dispersing the money, refuses to turn over the

funds until it gets assurances the contribution won't

be squandered.

 

David Jones, the North Carolina Zoo director, said the

political turf fight in Kabul has delayed by four or

five months efforts to do even the minimal amount of

work to make the animals more comfortable and prepare

the zoo for winter.

 

" What we cannot do is what the Afghans would like: to

hand over the $350,000 and expect it is going to be

used for the purposes the donors wish it to be used

for, " he said.

 

Jones and Omar said the Kabul Zoo and its money are

being fought over by the Ministry of Higher Education,

which oversaw the zoo, and the city government, which

controls it now.

 

The ministry is negotiating with the Cologne Zoo in

Germany to create a rehabilitation plan, but city hall

does not want to relinquish control. After enduring

years of protecting the animals in a war zone, Kabul

officials know the zoo is about to see better days,

and they do not want to be left out.

 

" Some of our staff were injured, killed, blinded, and

still we ran the zoo, " said Abdullatif Shahnori, an

animal feeder and Omar's right-hand man. " Now times

are good. We suffered a lot. Keeping the zoo is our

right. "

 

Jones said the Mayhew Home for Animals, a London-based

organization that gives the zoo $250 to $400 a week

for animal feed, is trying to get a clarification from

Kabul's government. As soon as they do, Jones can use

some of the money to send teams from the London Zoo to

start caring for the animals and make temporary

repairs until the full rehabilitation plan gets under

way.

 

The London teams could arrive within a month, Jones

said, but only if he gets the necessary assurances.

 

" What I don't want is to send people out at vast

expense, using up this money, and find we are not

getting anywhere, " he said. " At the end of the day I

couldn't frankly care a damn who runs the place. But

what I need in order to use these funds well is a

definite indication as to who in the Kabul government

is actually going to be responsible. "

 

Walsh, of the WSPA, which cares for zoo animals in

crisis situations around the world, is upset that

Jones has not rushed to send a representative to

mediate the dispute.

 

" He's a more patient man than I am; I've seen too much

suffering, " said Walsh, who helped protect animals at

the zoo in Kuwait during the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

 

Wretched conditions

 

What Jones and Walsh agree on is that the zoo is in

wretched condition and made a terrible error in

judgment accepting the gift from China, which also

includes two lions and some pigs.

 

The zoo is in no condition to house the animals. There

is a spacious enclosure surrounded by a moat that

could handle the bears, but Donatella has been placed

there to prevent her from rubbing her injured snout

against the cage bars. So the two new bears pace

maddeningly in a tiny cage that no Western zoo would

use for even one animal.

 

Jones and Walsh are upset that Donatella continues to

suffer. Several Western military veterinarians serving

in Afghanistan have examined and treated her, but

Jones said she apparently has a complex infection that

would require intensive treatment.

 

Both the North Carolina Zoo and WSPA campaigned

publicly for the Kabul Zoo to not accept the donated

animals, but they apparently were overruled by the

Chinese zoo.

 

Omar, the Kabul zookeeper, said he accepted the

Chinese animals because he can care for them, but he

turned down an offer from India of two elephants.

 

Omar and Shahnori spend their days smoking cigarettes

in the zookeeper's tiny, tattered office.

 

A baby cobra slithers in a mayonnaise jar on the

windowsill, and a baby porcupine sleeps in a cardboard

box under a chair.

 

2002, Chicago Tribune

 

 

 

 

 

 

Y! Web Hosting - Let the expert host your web site

http://webhosting./