Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Dangerous Surabaya Zoo

A Zoo is a public facility where animals are supposed to live well protected and well fed.

Unfortunately, not all Zoos have good management that can take proper care of the animals living inside.
Some of them are even very badly managed that some of the endangered animals died.

Recently, a Sumatera Tiger, an African Lion and an Australian Kangaroo died because of hunger at the Zoo in Surabaya, East Java.  The 94 years old Zoo has an area of 15 Hectares and hold 4,200 animals including 13 other Sumatera Tigers kept in dirty and crumped cages. According to the Zoo's caretaker, hundreds of animals died every year and others suffer from hunger, stress and overcrowding. If there is no improvement, he's afraid that they will all die in 5 years.

Considering that most Zoos are under government supervision, I hope that these very shameful incidents would be investigated thoroughly and processed in the Court of Law..
 
For details, please read the following media reports :
Satwa di Kebon Binatang Terancam Punah Dalam 5 Tahun
Warning: All Animals at Indonesian zoo in danger.

6 comments:

Meutia Halida Khairani said...

hmm, i can't even imagine that lion, tiger, n kangaroo died in the zoo. when i went to ragunan, i saw that some leopards, Bear, lion was sooo thin.
How poor they are..

colson said...

What a shame. Zoos are supposed to play a role in conservation, not in extermination.

It is rumoured I read that the zoo's sloppy management could be caused by rivals (Stani and Basuki) vying for control.

If that's the case I think it is relatively easy for government to intervene.

However in the short run it may be necessary to transfer animals to other zoos in or outside of Indonesia. And I wonder by the way the Zoo take doesn't part in international cooperation and seek for help there- in Australia for instance or via an organization like the South Asian Zoo Association for Regional Cooperation ( though I should add Indonesia is not a member yet )?

Unknown said...

@Meutia,
What happened at the zoo especially in Surabaya should not happen. They should have money at least from the entrance fees, It that's not enough the government should help them either through subsidy of find private entrepreneur who are willing to participate in the management.

@H,
Thank you for your visit and kind words. I will check you video blog.

@Colson,
What's more humiliating is that such shameful incidents have been allowed to happen by the authority. The govt should help, it does not mean the should give money, but they can advise the management e.g finding foreign zoos willing to take them for several years as you have suggested. I am sure many country would be happy to help.

Unknown said...

Animal cruelty is unfortunately very common these days. I don't know what can be done to help the poor animals....

Unknown said...

December_Roses,
If animal cruelty happened in place where they must be protected, then there is something wrong with the management of that place. In this case changing the management might help the animals.

The Bookgrove Reading Center said...

This is sad to hear, and you think zoos are places where animals are kept safe. And yes, I agree that they should be punished for not doing their responsibility not only as a theme park, but for the responsibility of taking good care of the animals.