(CN) Starving zoo animals the forgotten victims

May 27, 2003

South China Morning Post

Tuesday, May 27, 2003

by HARRY DORAN in Beijing

Starving lions at a mainland wildlife park attacked and devoured

the weakest in their pen last week - another victim of the Sars crisis.

With the number of visitors to the Haicang wildlife park in

Fujian province plummeting by 97 per cent in recent months, the owner said

he simply did not have enough money to properly feed his emaciated animals.

" The pride ripped the lion open, " said Liu Huichun, the wildlife

park's general manager. " There was nothing I could do. In all my years of

dealing with wild animals I've never seen anything like it. They never

attack each other. Never, " he said.

In a similar attack at the park on Saturday, a tiger was badly

hurt when the other tigers in its cage tried to kill it.

" Luckily, two of my staff were able to frighten them off so he

survived, " Mr Liu said.

Since news of the Sars outbreak surfaced, visitors have stayed

away from the wildlife park. " They're all afraid because they heard the

virus came from wild animals, " he said.

The park has spent 400,000 yuan (HK$377,000) on Sars-prevention

measures and cut staff salaries.

On May 18, with funds running chronically low, Mr Liu ordered

that the animals' food rations be cut by about one-third.

" After less than a week you could really see they were beginning

to suffer from lack of nutrition, " he said. " They are starving and driven to

eat each other to survive. "

With strict rules covering the trading of endangered species, Mr

Liu said he could not sell his animals. Banks were unwilling to lend to

parks that were not state-run, he said.

Animals at the biggest wildlife park in Beijing have enough food

for now, but its manager said yesterday that time was quickly running out.

Beijing Wildlife Park closed on May 1 following orders from the

local government. It had lost 14 million yuan in turnover since then, the

manager said. He added that he was praying for Sars to be contained quickly

and was seeking a loan or government subsidy to keep the animals alive.

" If this doesn't end soon all these wild animals will certainly

die, " he said.

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