PAKISTAN ANIMAL WELFARE SOCIETY PROTESTS ZOO ELEPHANT'S DEATH

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No more cruelty

 

Friday September 22, 2006 (0411 PST)

 

 

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Anarkali, Karachi Zoo`s 65-year-old female elephant died in July this year.

Upon her death she became food for the other zoo animals. Her body is to be

stuffed and put on display in the zoo`s natural history museum while the

zoo`s director Mansoor Qazi is considering ways to get another elephant

soon.

 

In recent years there has been growing public debate around the world about

the ethics of keeping elephants in zoos. Had Anarkali not been taken away

from her natural habitat in the wild she would have lived in a large social

group and roamed up to 20 miles a day foraging for food and water? Her

complex physical, behavioural and social needs were certainly not met at

Karachi Zoo, where she spent six decades after being captured from

Bangladesh in the 1950s.

 

Like so many other zoo animals, Anarkali`s life too was full of much

suffering and neglect. Perhaps none of us could see the loneliness in her

eyes, the perpetual wounds on her body from having to sleep on concrete, or

the stress and discomfort she endured chained to the ground by three legs

for 20 hours a day. If one of the worst punishments for a human is solitary

confinement, the same is true for a wild animal. And while her presence may

certainly have been recreation for the entertainment starved residents of

Karachi, it was no joyride for Anarkali.

 

According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of

Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), the Asian elephant can only be imported for

conservation and breeding purposes and only to facilities equipped to house

and care for them. Try as they may, the Karachi Zoo would be hard pressed to

meet any such requirement let alone meeting the minimum welfare standards

for captive elephant management and care as set forth by the American Zoo

Association and the European Association for Zoos and Aquaria. Less than

50,000 Asian elephants are said to be left in fragmented habitats in the

wild. Keeping one chained up in Karachi for the entertainment of our

children will neither serve to educate them nor contribute to protecting the

species in their natural habitat.

 

Even the London Zoo, which had displayed elephants for 170 years, decided in

2001 that its facilities were inadequate and shifted its three Asian

elephants to the countryside setting of Whipsnade Wild Animal Park. Given

the plight of elephants in captivity, the Royal Society for the Prevention

of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) in the UK published a report that recommends

the phasing out of elephant exhibits in zoos worldwide. The report also

calls for an urgent improvement of current elephant management standards and

states that no animal should be housed singly, especially females. The

Karachi Zoo management, hell-bent as they are on getting another elephant,

would be well advised to get hold of a copy of this report to reconsider

their decision. Concerned citizens should urge the Karachi Zoo director to

consider spending the money saved on maintaining an elephant exhibit on

improving the housing conditions of the zoo`s many other animals.

 

Let us not have another Anarkali.

 

Pakistan Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)

 

Karachi