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16 Established 1961 Health Thursday, July 5, 2018 Shortage of vets spells misery for Karachi zoo animals KARACHI: A white African lioness stares blankly at the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by ostrich was badly damaged and we had to operate,” spectators crowded outside her small, steel-barred music icon Cher in 2016 after it emerged the animal says Abida Raees, a zoologist and deputy chief of the cage, her extraordinary coat dotted with numerous was being kept in chains. zoo. At least one young chimpanzee, Raju, has been spots, the result of a fungal skin disease that has And the zoo in northwestern Peshawar, which known to unwrap juice boxes thrown to him by visitors marred her once pristine fur. The ailment is curable — opened in February, has admitted that 30 animals so and drink from the plastic straw. Raees said the zoo or, rather, it should be. But at the Karachi Zoological far have died while being transferred or in quarantine, appealed to visitors not to feed animals but an AFP Garden there are not enough vets to give proper treat- including three rare snow leopard cubs. “Peshawar Zoo reporter could see no such signs on display. However ment to its more than 850 animals, many held in cages is very understaffed, and those we have are untrained,” efforts are finally being made to revamp the northwest built over a century ago. spokesman Naimat Khan said. There is little legislation portion of the facility to make it more “humane and “Here we have a mere two veterinaries and three in Pakistan to help support animal welfare. The most animal friendly”, replacing the enclosures with large paramedics. They are not at all sufficient,” said the recent law on the books addressing animal cruelty wet and dry ones that are far closer to the animals’ zoo’s chief, Mansoor Ahmed Qazi. Management have dates from 1890. Such little legal recourse “makes it natural habitat. been pushing the city council to approve a third vet- difficult for the country to improve animal welfare Zain Mustafa, a consultant to the government, and erinary position for the zoo’s population, including standards in its zoos”, Ayesha of the WWF said. his team surveyed and studied eight zoos in different lions, tigers, elephants, chimpanzees, birds and reptiles. countries including the United States, Germany, But the council has usually focused more on sewage, ‘Animals have emotions’ Singapore, and India, drawing from what they saw to roads, and garbage removal in the chaotic port megac- At the Karachi Zoological Gardens, shops have plan the renovations in Karachi. Work appears to be ity of some 20 million people, which until recently had encroached on the zoo property, still dotted with cen- going on in fits and starts, with little chance of being been rocked by years of political and ethnic violence. turies-old tamarind, banyan and ficus trees.”Stones completed by the 2019 deadline, but he hopes the new “This is unfortunate, that the zoo is heavily under- and garbage from the shops are thrown into the animal enclosures when finally complete will provide a more staffed and thus not able to take good care of the ani- enclaves. That amounts to cruelty,” Faheem Zaman, a suitable home for the animals. “The old Victorian con- mals,” said Humaira Ayesha, an expert from the World former chief of Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, cepts of keeping wild animals for exhibition, as a toy, Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) in Karachi. says. Visitors also throw things into the animals’ cages. or amusement is over now,” said Mustafa. “Studies tell Unfortunately the problem is not limited to Karachi. An official recalled that a spectator once threw a us that the animals have emotions, they feel loneliness Islamabad’s zoo has long been criticized for its treat- handkerchief knotted with a steel wire towards an and depression if kept in captivity and an unnatural ment of its lone elephant, Kaavan, which became the ostrich, which gulped it down. “The long neck of the environment.” —AFP KARACHI: File photo shows a lion eats meat in a cage. —AFP.

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