Big Cats Caught in a War Zone
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Big cats caught CHRONOLOGY OF HUMANE PROGRESS in a war zone (PAGE 17) BAGHDAD, SAN ANTONIO, A S H E B O R O , the city, had been closed for many months, ostensibly for N . C . ––Anxious U.S. Marines under the command of “renovation.” The public and news media were barred, and Lieutenant Colonel Eric Schwartz during the nights of April as at other public facilities throughout Iraq, weapons and 15 and April 17 unhappily shot three of seven starving munitions were stored on the grounds. African lions found at the Baghdad Zoo after first one and “Even before the conflict the zoo was a sorry then two more broke out of their bomb-damaged enclosures. place,” recalled Sherwell. “Many animals, including ponies On the loose, they could easily have found their and camels, have died or have been killed for food. way into densely populated parts of the city. The remaining animals had not been fed in about “We fought our way from Kuwait to Najaf to 10 days when the Marines arrived and began giving them Kerbala to Baghdad, but the hardest thing I’ve had to do in their own rations. Iraq was kill those lions,” Schwartz told London S u n d a y “The troops slaughtered pigs penned at the zoo Telegraph correspondent Philip Sherwell. site, and butchered a dead wolf to feed the lions and tigers. Wrote Sherwell, “Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, But it couldn’t go far —a lion consumes 18 pounds a day,” 3rd Infantry Division––the troops who first fought their way wrote Patrick McDowell of Associated Press, into Baghdad––have been feeding the caged animals with “My men really care about these animals,” slaughtered donkeys and bringing them water from an artifi- Schwartz said. cial lake,” with the help of zoo veterinarian Hashim Non-essential travel through Iraq was still restrict- Mohamed Hussein, who was among the few staff who ed during the first days after the Marines entered Baghdad, remained on duty after the fall of Saddam Hussein. but a truck from Kuwait hauling seven tons of frozen meat, Added Sherwell, “The zoo’s birds, fish, and rep- fruit, vegetables and grain for the animals arrived on April tiles were stolen by looters, but they thought better of tack- 19, escorted throughout the 24-hour drive from the border ling the lions, who were donated by Saddam’s son Uday.” by a military convoy. Rosalind Russell of Reuters reported that Uday’s “This represents two to four weeks of food for the 20-year-old tiger Mandor also remained at the 11-acre zoo, Baghdad Zoo,” Army reservist Jim Fikes told McDowell. but that the looters had taken “chimpanzees, vervet mon- Fikes “put together the shipment with the keys, Pekinese dogs, love birds, and cockatoos. More than Humanitarian Organizing Committee in Kuwait City, which 300 animals are missing,” Russell said, but it was not clear handles connections between charities and the U.S. military,” that all of them disappeared with the looters, who were still McDowell wrote. trying to steal zoo equipment as of April 17. “It comes from a request that I got through the mil- The Baghdad Zoo, actually one of three zoos in itary chain,” Fikes explained. “It was considered urgent.” (Kim Bartlett) (continued on page 16) ANIMAL PEOPLE News For People Who Care About Animals May 2003 Volume XIII, #2 Elephant captures & rampages spotlight habitat encroachment PRETORIA, NEW DELHI, Germany; and five were sold to former co- NAIROBI, SAN DIEGO, BANGKOK, defendant Saunders. COLOMBO,––Pretoria Regional Court magis- The “Tuli elephants case,” as the trate Adriaan Bekker on April 7 found African episode became known, was instrumental in Game Services owner Riccardo Ghiazza of rallying protest against the conventional prac- Brits, South Africa, guilty of cruelty to 30 tices of wild elephant capture and training. It young elephants in 1998-1999. The verdict spotlighted an increasing dilemma throughout reportedly took Bekker four hours to read. the range of both African and Asian elephants, Convicted with Ghiazza, but on just afflicting both the wild and captive populations: two cruelty counts, was student elephant han- what to do about overcrowded or displaced ele- dler Henry Wayne Stockigt. phants in a world which allows them only limit- Charges were dismissed against ed wild habitat. another handler, Craig Saunders, and another The Ghiazza conviction came amid a company, African Game Properties Inc. new worldwide furor over the prolonged suffer- Ex-dancing bear enjoys a break at Wildlife SOS in Agra, India. (Alan Knight) Captured in the Tuli district of ing and death of an Indian elephant captured on Botswana during July 1998, the elephants were February 5 in Chattisgarh state by the noted Bear sanctuary at the Taj Majal transported to Brits for training and sale to female mahout Parbati Barua. A G R A ––The future of captive The CZA has already closed 90 overseas zoos. Wrote Alex Kirby of BBC News wildlife protection in India is at Agra, People substandard zoos since 1995, Sinha warned, Global outrage erupted first over the Online, “Witnesses say the elephant was for Animals founder Maneka Gandhi while 91 others have been ordered to close separation of the elephants from their mothers, repeatedly jabbed with spikes and struck with believes, near the east gate of the Taj Mahal. but are still operating because there is as yet and then over alleged rough treatment of the bamboo canes,” after being run to exhaustion, There, at Soor Sarovar village, nowhere else to place their animals. Of the elephants by trainers hired from Indonesia. The tranquilized, and dragged between two tame Wildlife SOS cofounders Kartick Sayanar- 346 zoos open as of 1995, just 165 meet the South African National SPCA began the long elephants. “His legs were tied,” Kirby contin- ayan and Geeta Sheshamani in December CZA animal care standards––and Mrs. effort to convict Ghiazza after videotape sur- ued, as was the elephant’s head. “Then his 2002 opened a 30-acre sanctuary for former Gandhi and PfA are actively lobbying for the faced that reportedly showed Stockigt and oth- tusks were sawn off. He was left without food dancing bears. Indian Forest Service to raise those standards ers beating the chained elephants. and water, and died 18 days later, apparently Nearly two years into a sustained by creating a trained professional force of zoo Ghizza, a major supplier of African of stress, starvation, and thirst.” effort to enforce provisions of the 1972 Indian administrators. wildlife to zoos in China, apparently intended Videographers Mike Pandey and Wildlife Protection Act that prohibit the trav- Admitting that circuses cannot meet to sell some or all of the elephants to China. Amalendu Mishra documented the suffering of eling exhibition of lions, tigers, leopards, the existing zoo standards, Indian Circus None are known to have actually gone there. the elephant. The International Fund for monkeys, apes, and bears, Mrs. Gandhi sees Federation chief Ashok Shankar reportedly Instead, according to the South Africa-based Animal Welfare and the Wildlife Trust of India in the Wildlife SOS project the start of a sanc- won from current environment minister and Wildlife Action Group, nine went to the distributed the video to news media. People for tuary network to provide quality care-for-life minister for animal welfare T.R. Baalu a Marakele Game Reserve in South Africa; nine Animals founder Maneka Gandhi demanded to hundreds of seized former circus animals. promise that the proposed Wildlife Protection went to the Sandhurt Safaris hunting lodge in that Barua be criminally prosecuted. The drive to end the use of lions, Act amendment will be reviewed by a panel North West Province; seven are held in contro- “The acts of Barua were not negligent tigers, leopards, monkeys, apes, and bears appointed by Baalu, the CZA, and the versial conditions at the Dresden Zoo, in (continued on page 16) in traveling shows began in 2001. As then- Animal Welfare Board of India minister of state for animal welfare, Mrs. Mrs. Gandhi and allies have mean- Gandhi won a series of verdicts from the while begun the struggle to raise sufficient Supreme Court of India against exhibitors funds to enable Wildlife SOS to demonstrate who had for a decade used protracted lawsuits that the sanctuary concept is viable in India. to defy seizure order she originally issued in If sanctuaries succeed in India, they are 1989, during a stint as environment minister. aware, they will have established working In January 2003 Central Zoo models for other economically stressed Authority member secretary P.R. Sinha nations of alternatives to exhibition for the announced a proposed amendment to the upkeep of wild animals who for any reason Wildlife Protection Act which would cannot be returned to the wild. strengthen the regulation of circus care of “I am going to Australia for three other species by bringing traveling shows weeks, the longest I have ever been away under CZA jurisdiction. (continued on page 8) 2 - ANIMAL PEOP LE, May 2003 I spotted Casper about half a mile from that feeding station, I t to o k a during the day! So I immediately set up a new station ahead of him, along the path he was walking . and within minutes he discovered it! y e a r t o r e s - This new station was away from the coyote trail, so I could set c u e C a s p e r , up my trap there. Right away I pressed my luck and showed Casper that staying w h o l i v e d here was a better idea! I fed him canned food and meat twice a day .