A Blog: Do Zoo's make any sense ?

[Guest guest]

Link: http://insanityrediscovered.blogspot.com/

 

The excerpts below are taken from one of the blogs that is doing the rounds

after the Kolkata Giraffe death.

 

Please check link for the full text and comments and to submit any.

 

Azam

 

________

 

In their current state, for the animals, no. Yet they are an amazing place

to introduce kids to animals, to marvel at the majesty of the lions, to see

the deer frolic, and it really isn't possible to see all such animals by

taking a cross country tour of all the Indian forest resorts. Not unless you

are a dedicated forest traveller. And zoos are the best place to sensitize

little children from the very beginning, about caring for wild animals. But

zoo's as the Kolkata zoo exists today, doesn't make any sense. No zoo worth

it's salt keeps animals in cages any more. The ongoing plans of the zoo to

shift to the bye-pass has plans to eradicate the cages altogether, except

for a few rare birds and small active creatures like monkeys. But with the

lackadaisical attitude of the zoo people, we might get a few more

electrocuted during the shift. Whatever. This isn't a post really, more of a

rambling. ZOO's need to improve. Geddit?

______________

It's a shame.

A veritable shame.

Yesterday, a giraffe died on the road. It was being transported in an open

box by truck from Kolkata to Nandankanan in Orissa as a part of the zoo

transfer program. Zoo transfer programs are ideally meant to increase the

diversity of animals amongst zoos while at the same time ensuring that there

is no fall in the standards of the available gene pool for breeding. However

they rarely do so, especially when the animal in question has been imported

from another country. Sundar, the 11 year old Kolkata born Kenyan giraffe,

while being transported from Alipore to Nandankanan in Orissa, was being

transported in an open box, which is a dangerous practice, never followed by

any zoo with an ounce of brain in their cranial cavities. Open boxes are

dangerous as animals might try to escape, they might be badly affected by

excessive exposure to the sun, they might be bothered by birds and as they

are not in a position to move about, they might no the able to shoo away the

birds, and several other reasons, which you can find out if you bother to

trawl through the wonderful book " A Zoo in my Luggage " . But let us overlook

this manifest ignorance about global zoo practices. What is even

more appalling is the fact that the truck carrying the giraffe, as a result

of rash driving, managed to bang the Sundar's neck into a electric pole, and

the people did not realize that the giraffe was hurt for half an hour. And

when a giraffe hurts his neck, IT FRIGGING HURTS! An average male giraffe

upon maturity has a very long neck, close to 8 feet. Eight feet of

excruciating pain, and eight feet is bigger than any human you will ever

see. And the icing on the cake is that the giraffe got electrocuted on the

high tension wire for a few seconds. Very few humans can survive that,

without significant brain damage. And now for the cherry on top, the people

driving the van, who oh so very obviously had never driven about animals

before, sat there and didn't do anything, while trying to decide whether to

take it back to Alipore, a two hour drive away, or to continue on for

another four hours. While poor Sundar floundered on. Battling for life.

Ultimately, only when the zoo directors set up a tele-conference and decided

that Sundar was to be brought back, did Sundar come back to Kolkata. Such

exemplary abilities of planing, management, and compassion can only be best

rewarded by a Bharat Ratna. And then a dying Sundar made the journey back to

Kolkata. Only to be held up by the traffic police, for heavy vehicles are

not allowed within the city precincts from 8AM to 10 PM. Poor Sundar

expired, while waiting for permission to enter the city he was born in. And

with him died a lot of hopes. That Kolkata could look after it's children.

 

 

--

United against elephant polo

http://www.stopelephantpolo.com

http://www.freewebs.com/azamsiddiqui