Guest guest Posted June 10, 2006 Report Share Posted June 10, 2006 http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/reprieve-for-beijing-zoos-residents/2006/06/\ 09/1149815316466.html?page=2 Reprieve for Beijing Zoo's residentst<http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/reprieve-for-beijing-zoos-residen\ ts/2006/06/09/1149815316466.html#> [image: Just like death row: a cell for tigers.] Just like death row: a cell for tigers. Photo: *Katharina Hesse* AdvertisementAdvertisement Mary-Anne Toy, Beijing June 10, 2006 Page 1 of 2 | Single page<http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/reprieve-for-beijing-zoos-residents/200\ 6/06/09/1149815316466.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1> WHEN the Beijing Zoo was created in 1906 as a pleasure garden for China's last empress, Ci Xi, it was known as the Ten Thousand Animal Garden. With its graceful weeping willows, mature gardens, picturesque lakes and Qing dynasty buildings, including the empress' European-style mansion, the zoo today enjoys iconic status among the ordinary people of Beijing. Its collection of 6000 animals and birds, covering about 500 species, including the endangered giant pandas, set in 90 hectares of rare inner-city parkland, draws 5 to 6 million visitors every year. But its reputation among Western visitors is far less complimentary. One visitor dubbed it a " Chinese prison camp for animals " . The current *Lonely Planet* guidebook says all zoos are animal prisons " but Beijing Zoo seems like death row " . English zoologist Karin Harrington, now a consultant to the zoo, knows what they mean. But she is passionate and optimistic that Beijing's zoo animals are about to be paroled. When Dr Harrington first met Wally the Wombat in 2002, the then 19-year-old wombat was looking pretty miserable in a concrete cage with peeling paint and nowhere to burrow. Wally's plight inspired her to campaign for a new home for the wombats that has grown into an ambitious plan for an Australia zone to house all of the zoo's Australian animals. Her timing was good. In 2002, Wu Zhaozheng, who arrived at the zoo in 1984 as a fresh-faced graduate with a masters in marine animals, had just been made director and he had a vision to overhaul the zoo. In China, animal welfare, like the environment, has not been a priority for a country that has been focused on lifting its people out of poverty first. Mr Wu is as frank as it is politic to be as he explains the bureaucratic hurdles his staff work through to bring about improvements. For example, workers draw up the best plans for new enclosures but then the plans have to be submitted to the park authority's architects and zoo staff must try to persuade them to adopt the animal-friendly designs. The zoo's giant panda enclosure won a national design award — even though from a panda's point of view there are problems with the design. Mr Wu intends to rebuild the panda enclosure in the next two years. In 2004, Mr Wu's reform efforts were almost blindsided by the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic. Fears about contact with animals and the possible spread of infection led to attempts to shut the zoo or to move it to the outer suburbs. Eventually, the authorities agreed to put the money that would have been spent shifting the zoo towards renovating it instead. Reprieve for Beijing Zoo's residents - - Email<http://www.theage.com.au/cgi-bin/common/popupEmailArticle.pl?path=/article\ s/2006/06/09/1149815316466.html> - Print<http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/reprieve-for-beijing-zoos-residents/20\ 06/06/09/1149815316466.html#> - Normal font<http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/reprieve-for-beijing-zoos-residents/200\ 6/06/09/1149815316466.html#> - Large font<http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/reprieve-for-beijing-zoos-residents/200\ 6/06/09/1149815316466.html#> [image: Just like death row: a cell for tigers.] Just like death row: a cell for tigers. Photo: *Katharina Hesse* AdvertisementAdvertisement Mary-Anne Toy, Beijing June 10, 2006 Page 1 of 2 | Single page<http://www.theage.com.au/news/world/reprieve-for-beijing-zoos-residents/200\ 6/06/09/1149815316466.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1> WHEN the Beijing Zoo was created in 1906 as a pleasure garden for China's last empress, Ci Xi, it was known as the Ten Thousand Animal Garden. With its graceful weeping willows, mature gardens, picturesque lakes and Qing dynasty buildings, including the empress' European-style mansion, the zoo today enjoys iconic status among the ordinary people of Beijing. Its collection of 6000 animals and birds, covering about 500 species, including the endangered giant pandas, set in 90 hectares of rare inner-city parkland, draws 5 to 6 million visitors every year. But its reputation among Western visitors is far less complimentary. One visitor dubbed it a " Chinese prison camp for animals " . The current *Lonely Planet* guidebook says all zoos are animal prisons " but Beijing Zoo seems like death row " . English zoologist Karin Harrington, now a consultant to the zoo, knows what they mean. But she is passionate and optimistic that Beijing's zoo animals are about to be paroled. When Dr Harrington first met Wally the Wombat in 2002, the then 19-year-old wombat was looking pretty miserable in a concrete cage with peeling paint and nowhere to burrow. Wally's plight inspired her to campaign for a new home for the wombats that has grown into an ambitious plan for an Australia zone to house all of the zoo's Australian animals. Her timing was good. In 2002, Wu Zhaozheng, who arrived at the zoo in 1984 as a fresh-faced graduate with a masters in marine animals, had just been made director and he had a vision to overhaul the zoo. In China, animal welfare, like the environment, has not been a priority for a country that has been focused on lifting its people out of poverty first. Mr Wu is as frank as it is politic to be as he explains the bureaucratic hurdles his staff work through to bring about improvements. For example, workers draw up the best plans for new enclosures but then the plans have to be submitted to the park authority's architects and zoo staff must try to persuade them to adopt the animal-friendly designs. The zoo's giant panda enclosure won a national design award — even though from a panda's point of view there are problems with the design. Mr Wu intends to rebuild the panda enclosure in the next two years. In 2004, Mr Wu's reform efforts were almost blindsided by the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) epidemic. Fears about contact with animals and the possible spread of infection led to attempts to shut the zoo or to move it to the outer suburbs. Eventually, the authorities agreed to put the money that would have been spent shifting the zoo towards renovating it instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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