Unbearable zoo mystery turns into potboiler

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Unbearable zoo mystery turns into potboiler

Kate Connolly in Berlin

March 29, 2008

 

THE Berlin zoo is under pressure to explain the fate of hundreds of animals

which

have vanished amid claims they were slaughtered and in some cases turned into

potency-boosting

drugs.

 

Claudia Hammerling, a Green party politician, backed by several animal rights

organisations, alleges the zoo's director, Bernhard Blaszkiewitz, sold the

animals.

 

She claims to have evidence that four Asian black bears and a hippopotamus

were

transported to the Belgian town of Wortel, which has no zoo, but which does have

an abattoir.

 

According to Ms Hammerling these animals were slaughtered. She said the

systematic

" overproduction of animals " at zoos, designed to attract more visitors,

was to blame.

 

Ms Hammerling said she also knew of several tigers and leopards from Berlin

that

ended up in a tiger breeding farm in China that promoted itself as a purveyor of

traditional potency-boosting medicines made from big cats. She alleges the

animals'

remains were turned into drugs.

 

Mr Blaszkiewitz, who became something of a personality after the polar bear

Knut

was born at his zoo in December 2006, strongly denies the charges. The bear's

popularity bumped up visitor numbers and profitability.

 

Responsible for 23,000 animals and credited with turning the Berlin zoo into

the

city's most popular attraction, Mr Blaszkiewitz believes his detractors are

spreading " untruths, half-truths and lies " .

 

" The stories of slaughter have been invented. We only work with respectable

zoo dealers, " he said.

 

He added that while animals were sent to China in the 1990s, their transfer

was

approved by the federal office for nature protection. Rearing animals was

central

to his work and visitors should have the chance to observe the rearing process,

he said.

 

He denied claims that money making was the motivating factor.

 

However, at Nuremberg zoo, the deputy director, Helmut Magdefrau, has been

reported

as saying: " If we cannot find good homes for the animals, we kill them and

use them as feed. "

 

At Nuremberg recently an antelope was fed to caged lions as visitors watched

in

outrage.

A spokeswoman for Ms Hammerling said the MP was prepared to press charges over

the Berlin zoo.

 

Prosecutors will soon announce whether the case goes to court. The zoo has

been

unable to shake off the charge that it has been encouraging animal births to

boost

visitors keen on " cute offspring " . The phenomenon has been labelled

" Knut-mania " ,

after the cub became one of the biggest moneyspinning animals in history, thanks

largely to marketing offshoots.

 

Knut products now range from cuddly toys to credit cards. The Nuremberg zoo

now

has its own celebrity polar bear cub, Flocke, which ventured outdoors for the

first

time on Thursday.

 

The Australian black swan Petra, which made headlines by falling in love with

a swan-shaped pedal boat, had been building a nest at Muenster zoo with a white

swan called Bruce. But zoo officials say Bruce has now left Petra - so they are

planning to reunite her with the pedal boat.

 

Guardian News & Media, Australian Associated Press, Associated Press

 

This story was found at:

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/03/28/1206207408578.html

 

 

What gets us into trouble is not what we don't know, it's what we know for sure

that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain