Society
Easy prey: how death stalks China's zoo animals
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-03-25 19:46
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BEIJING - Zoo animals, including large and endangered species, have been found starving and dying in a number of Chinese zoos as a result of neglect and mismanagement, an investigation by Xinhua has found.
The most shocking discovery by Xinhua reporters was a mass burial pit filled with animal carcases and left uncovered since mid 2009 at one zoo in northeast China.
Xinhua launched its probe in the wake of the deaths of 11 tigers in a zoo in northeast China's Liaoning province early this year, and found:
-- a zoo in southwest China leasing out tigers for circus-style performances in order to pay for food.
-- big cats being fed on chicken bones because meat is too expensive.
-- a lethal illness spread unchecked through animals at one zoo because managers could not afford veterinary care.
A fatal move
Many of the problems are a direct result of China's mass urbanization over the last 30 years. With the rising tide of people streaming into the cities, property developers have covetously eyed the prime real estate occupied by the traditionally popular inner city zoos.
However, these new sites are often too far from population centers or just inconveniently located for the public -- and visitor numbers have plunged with drastic results.
"Many urban zoos have been forced to relocate to outlying areas. All such relocated zoos we know are doing badly," said Xie Zhong, deputy secretary general of the Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens (CAZG).
"When they become difficult for the public to reach, visit numbers fall," said Xie. "When a zoo is not doing well financially, animals suffer."
The CAZG represents 200 zoos, double its membership of 100 when it was founded in the 1980s. "Most of our members are affiliated to State-owned entities. We don't have the figure of private zoos or safari parks, which have been mushrooming across China."
She cited the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo, where the 11 Siberian tigers died of malnutrition earlier this year, and the former Harbin Zoo, now the Harbin Northern Forest Zoo, as zoos that suffered from relocation.
"It seems a good thing that old zoos are replaced by new safari parks where animals can live in the open air instead of cages, but new zoos are far from residential areas and fewer people visit them, slashing their main income," said Hu Zhongping, secretary general of the CAZG.
Relocated zoos were larger and often had more animals to feed and much higher maintenance costs, so privatization usually followed, Hu said.
"Privatization is usually the last straw because governments stop supporting them," Hu said.
Death in captivity
Xinhua reporters Wednesday filmed a 20-square-meter pit, 3 meters deep, where dead animals were dumped instead of being cremated as required by law, at the Harbin Northern Forest Zoo, in northeast China's Heilongjiang province.
Formerly the Harbin Zoo in the provincial capital's downtown area, it was moved more than 40 km from the urban area in September 2004.
Manager Li Xiaowei said the zoo lacked cash to build an animal incinerator.
Fourteen big animals, including tigers, lions and leopards, died over a span of three months in the first half of 2008 at the zoo, said Zhang Xinru, in charge of the feeding.
Li admitted big carnivores, such as tigers, had been fed with chicken bones instead of expensive beef or lamb, which had made the animals weak.
"We have a funding shortfall of about 5 million yuan a year, despite government subsidies of 8 million to 10 million yuan a year," he said.
"The government will stop providing subsidies to the zoo by 2012, when the zoo is scheduled to be privatized."
Zoo worker Liu Xiaomi said, "The food is just enough to keep the animals alive."
As well as being malnourished, the animals were also denied veterinary care.
One zoo worker, on condition of anonymity, told how a Mongolian gazelle had contracted an unidentified infectious disease, but the zoo could not afford veterinary treatment. The illness spread, killing more than 20 Mongolian gazelles and deer.
Performing for food
Malnourished animals were also reported by Yan Zhanfang, a zookeeper in Kuerle city, in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
She said conditions at Kuerle Zoo deteriorated after its relocation from the downtown area to an outlying district in 2009. Tigers and lions were among the animals suffering from an impoverished diet.
At Guilin Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Park established in 1993 in Guilin city, southwest China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, managers had begun leasing out some of it 1,500 tigers to perform in circus-type acts in order to raise money to feed them.
Owner Zhou Weisen said the park had received 7.5 million yuan in funding from the state forestry authorities since 2002, but 360 tigers were leased out to ensure cashflows.
The animals in the Shenyang zoo have been properly fed now after Shenyang municipal government allocated 7 million yuan ($1.03 million) to fund the zoo, which is mainly privately owned with the Shenyang government having a 15-percent stake.
Xie with the CAZG said the authorities should intensify the supervision of investors' ability and actions in animal care, and promptly revoke their business permits if animals are badly treated.
"Zoos should be treated as public welfare organizations to protect animals," said Xie. "Once they become profit-making organizations, they can no longer guarantee the animal welfare.
"If the situation does not change, more animals will die," Xie said.
