Babylon's Ark

[Guest guest]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jun/13/society.iraq Welfare in a

war zone

 

When conservationist Lawrence Anthony arrived at Baghdad zoo in 2003 he

thought there was little hope for the 35 starving survivors he found there.

But the cages soon became a sanctuary for Iraq's animal victims

 

- *The Guardian* <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>* *

- *Wednesday June 13 2007 *

 

*[image: A lion at Baghdad zoo]*

 

This lion in Baghdad zoo in 2003 survived the neglect brought about by

fierce fighting and the looters who later stormed the complex. Photograph:

Lefteris Pitarakis/AP

 

My first instinct was to find a rifle and shoot the lot. In all my years in

the African bush and in conservation, I had never seen wildlife in such

wretched condition. The lions were so desiccated they could not drink. When

a zookeeper got water to them, they just dunked their mouths in the trough,

trying to loosen their swollen tongues. The bears, one of which was blind,

were pacing up and down their cages like demented robots. The tigers, whose

once-shiny pelts were now as faded as doormats, stared at me listlessly. One

of the cheetah had a suppurating wound, infested with flies. In her

debilitated state, it would not heal.

 

These were the lucky ones. Of the 650 animals and birds at the Baghdad zoo -

once the finest in the Middle East - only 35 had survived. They were the

ones who had come through the battle between American soldiers and Iraqi

Republican Guards that raged around their cages for weeks. They were the

ones with teeth and claws sharp enough to fight back when looting hordes

later stormed the zoo, killing or kidnapping every antelope, ostrich,

monkey, and even two giraffes. Lovebirds and macaws had their necks wrung

and were eaten like chickens.

 

With me was Husham Hussan, the zoo's deputy-director, who had tried to water

the critically dehydrated animals. The only dignity left for these pitifully

abused creatures was an honourable and quick death. We had no food or

medicines for them. Morally, what should I do? Prolong their suffering?

 

But something stopped me shooting the animals. Instead, we decided to make a

stand and fight for the lives of the remaining inhabitants. The Americans

had at first refused to give me permission to enter Iraq, as they said it

was too dangerous for Western civilians. However, I got clearance from the

Kuwaiti government to go. So, with a handful of Iraqi zookeepers under the

zoo's director Adel Mousa, US Captain William Sumner, and Brendan

Whittington-Jones, the manager from my game reserve in South Africa, the

fightback began. It was the most surreal animal experience imaginable.

Read the full

content……<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2007/jun/13/society.iraq#more-ar\

ticle>

 

*On the brink*

 

This was April 2003, Baghdad had no running water or electricity, so in

sweltering heat we lugged bucket after bucket of filthy water from nearby

canals to the cages. At one stage the looters stole our buckets. That was

nearly a death sentence for the zoo's survivors, already teetering on the

brink, but we managed to scrounge more and the trickle continued.

 

To feed the lions we needed meat. The only solution was to prowl the city

streets, literally stopping people and asking if we could buy their donkeys

for slaughter. This was before the end of " major hostilities " so it meant

frequenting dodgy areas, loaded with dollars, and doing transactions while

watching our backs.

 

But it wasn't only the zoo's animals that were on the verge of death. At the

palace of Uday Hussein (a son of Saddam), we found more lions and cheetah.

Most were in terrible shape and we had to move them to the zoo. As we had no

tranquillisers or dart guns, we went into their dens using a flimsy

chicken-mesh gate as a shield and somehow - amid spitting, snarling and

charges - herded them into transport cages.

 

We also managed to close down a blackmarket private menagerie in the red

zone that was little more than a concentration camp. With the help of

off-duty soldiers, we coaxed the distressed animals into rickety cages and

took them to the relative safety of the zoo.

 

Miraculously, the momentum slowly began to swing our way. Individual

American soldiers, unable to stomach officialdom's seeming lack of concern,

would turn their backs as we " looted " food from Saddam's bombed palaces or

derelict hotels. South African mercenaries regularly visited the zoo and

acted as guards, scaring off looters.

 

Our final triumph was rescuing some of Saddam's prized Arabian horses. His

herd was perhaps the finest in the Arab world, tracing its lineage back to

the Crusades. They had been stolen when Saddam fled, and an informer told us

they were being kept in secret stables in Abu Ghraib - the most dangerous

area of Baghdad.

 

The plan was simple: with a handful of American GIs riding shotgun, and

backed up by a Bradley tank, the team stormed the stables, rounded up the

horses identified by the informer, loaded them on to cattle trucks and sped

off. Unfortunately, we found only 17 out of 44, but the unique gene pool

will survive.

 

Finally, the administration grasped that what we were doing had merit. The

zoo is situated in the only green lung in Baghdad and the Americans realised

that to restore that lung, and the zoo within it, would be a powerful sign

that life could return to normal. They ploughed money into the project,

refurbishing the complex and improving the barren cages with the addition of

shaded outside areas.

 

Baghdad zoo was reopened six months after the invasion and it was time for

me to leave. Amazingly, not one animal had died since I arrived all those

months ago. Today, the zoo is functioning well in a city still bordering on

anarchy. It is in far better condition than it was before the war, and after

a decade of sanctions, Iraqi senior staff members have now improved their

animal husbandry skills with visits to top Middle East and UK institutions.

 

Based on my experiences in Baghdad, I formed a non-profit, grassroots

conservation group called the Earth Organization (earthorganization.org) to

raise awareness of the plight of the animal kingdom generally and to fight

against such atrocities ever occurring again.

 

*Protection status*

 

One of our first missions was to urge the Pentagon to form a wildlife task

team to deal with all enclosed wild animals encountered in war zones. The

British army will be next. We are going to the UN to have animal sanctuaries

and veterinary facilities accorded the same protection status under the

Geneva Convention as schools and hospitals. Our submissions have been

acknowledged by top military brass in the US, and that at least is a start.

 

But perhaps the most enduring memory for me was on my second day in Baghdad,

when after deciding that we might be able to save some of the starving

creatures, I asked Hussan to round up as many helpers as he could. He

arrived with a few staff and we met in the derelict zoo. I pointed to the

cages and simply remarked that without us, the animals would die. Hussan

translated, and the spark of fierce determination in those zookeepers' eyes

spoke volumes. For us, it was a line in the sand.

 

*· *Babylon's Ark, by Lawrence Anthony, is published by St Martin's Press,

price £16.99. To order a copy for £15.99 with free UK p & p call 0870 836 0875

or go to

guardian.co.uk/bookshop<http://www.guardianbookshop.co.uk/BerteShopWeb/viewProdu\

ct.do?ISBN=9780312358327>

 

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