Egyptian Central Zoos director agrees to use contraception to prevent perennial lion surplus

[Guest guest]

Not actually in Asia, but probably of personal interest to John.

 

 

 

 

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, April 2010:

 

 

Egyptian Central Zoos director agrees to use contraception to prevent

perennial lion surplus

 

CAIRO--Egyptian Central Zoos director and Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species representative Nabil Sidki

announced on April 6, 2010 that Egyptian zoos will begin using birth

control drugs and surgical sterilization to prevent surplus lion

births.

At least three zoos in Egypt, including the 120-year-old

Giza Zoo, have been criticized for decades for doing little to

curtail births of inbred lion cubs, some of whom are believed to be

illegally trafficked, while others contribute to severe overcrowding.

Frequently exposing conditions at the Giza Zoo since 1991,

former London Zoological Society fellow and Cairo resident Richard

Hoath in May 2009 noted in Egypt Today that the Giza Zoo lions are

still " kept in bare concrete cages, without any habitat or

behavioral enrichment, " even though the lion exhibit still includes

an extensive moated veldt that was meant to be the main lion habitat

when the zoo opened in 1891.

The keepers long ago routed most visitor traffic to the

original back side of the exhibit, where most of the lions are

confined in facilities built as night cages and feeding stations.

There the notoriously poorly paid keepers solicit tips from visitors

to arrange close-up photo and feeding opportunities.

" Rabbits could not keep up with the lions at Giza Zoo, yet

they breed more, " Hoath fumed.

Middle East Network for Animal Welfare wildlife panel

organizer Dina Zulfikar, who in 2008 helped the zoo bears to get air

conditioning that was promised 18 years earlier, in January 2010

took a busload of MENAW delegates to tour the zoo.

The MENAW delegates added their voices to the volume of

complaints, but the real turning point, Zulfikar told ANIMAL

PEOPLE, was the visit of a delegation from the African Association of

Zoos & Aquaria [PAAZAB] in early March 2010. PAAZAB is the African

member society within the World Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

WAZA expelled the Giza Zoo in 2004, Hoath wrote, " for,

amongst a catalogue of ills, unpaid fees and the poor conditions in

which the animals were kept. " A WAZA revisit after the expulsion

further criticized the Giza Zoo for keeping elephants on chains.

Sidki has made regaining PAAZAB and WAZA accreditation for

the Giza Zoo a personal priority.

 

 

 

 

 

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