(CN) Bankrupt zoo watched dozens of animals starve to death

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Thursday May 26, 10:46 AM

 

Lions starve to death at bankrupt China zoo

 

 

BEIJING (Reuters) - A bankrupt zoo in central China has watched

helplessly

as dozens of its animals, including at least eight lions and 12

ostriches,

have starved to death, domestic media said on Thursday.

 

 

Zoos have sprung up across China in the past decade to meet a growing

appetite for entertainment among increasingly affluent Chinese, but

many provide

wretched conditions, inept management and cannot draw enough visitors

to cover

their costs.

 

 

The zoo in Xiantao, Hubei province, did not earn enough from ticket

sales to

buy even basic food supplies, the Hubei-based Chutian Metropolis

Daily said.

 

 

One wolf, two deer and two camels had also died in the past 17

months, it

said.

 

 

" Because we don't have the necessary maintenance techniques,

experience and

funds, we can only sit by and watch all these animals die, " the zoo

owner was

quoted as saying.

 

 

Animal rights activists have criticised the state of China's zoos and

the

mistreatment of wild animals captured for their fur, or in the case

of bears,

for the healing power of their bile.

 

 

The zoo had more than 500 animals when it opened in October 2003, but

only

three lions, one tiger and some other animals were still there, the

paper said

without elaborating.

 

 

While other zoos in China have come under fire for publicly feeding

their

large cats live animals such as horses, the beasts at the Xiantao zoo

had to

live on little more than cheap chicken carcasses, it said.

 

 

Badly corroding bars at the zoo also posed a " serious hidden danger " ,

because they could weaken to the point that the starving carnivores

could break

out, it said.

 

 

" We don't know what we would do if the lions and tiger escaped, " the

zoo

owner said.