Khalid, a lion of the Bagdad Zoo, next to the lioness Shehad, on 17 April 2003. REUTERS/Petr Josek
KUWAIT CITY, April 18, (AP): As the war in Iraq winds down, attention is turning to one group of forgotten victims: the animals at Baghdad’s zoo. Weakened before the war by lack of food and medicine blamed on years of UN sanctions, the animals’ lives were endangered during the conflict by the placement of an Iraqi gun battery on the zoo’s grounds, opening it to destruction by US military attack.
The zookeepers fled, leaving the lions, bears, monkeys, camels and other charges without food and water. Since Saddam Hussein’s regime was toppled, the zoo has been looted. US troops have been feeding some animals from their rations. Moved by their plight, Kuwait shipped seven tons of frozen meat, fruit, vegetables and feed by truck to Iraq on Friday in an effort to save animals that haven’t yet died or escaped from their cages to roam the streets of Baghdad.
‘This represents two to four weeks of food for the Baghdad zoo,’ said Jim Fikes, an Army reservist who put together the shipment with the Humanitarian Organizing Committee in Kuwait City, which handles connections between charities and the US military. ‘It comes from a request that I got through the military chain,’ Fikes said. ‘My understanding is that there’s a serious shortage of food. It was considered urgent.’ When zookeepers fled, animals were left inside cages with no food or water. Looters stole birds and non-threatening mammals and opened the monkey cages, setting them free to roam the city.
US forces in Baghdad have described coming across the forgotten animals - including weakened lions stumbling throughout the compound. They fed some of them crackers, noodles and meat from their ration packs. The troops slaughtered pigs penned at the zoo site and butchered a dead wolf to feed the lions and tigers. But it couldn’t go far - a lion consumes 18 pounds a day. Running water has not been restored to the zoo, and soldiers and Iraqis have trucked it in to the animals. Consulting zookeepers in Kuwait about the animals’ dietary needs, Fikes and the Kuwaiti government rounded up sacks of apples, carrots, potatoes, lettuce, grain, bales of hay and crates of frozen, boneless meat for shipment to Baghdad.
A single truck, with a sign stating that the shipment was a gift from Kuwait to the people of Iraq, left Kuwait City on Friday morning and was to pick up a military convoy at the border for the daylong drive to the Iraqi capital. A US military veterinarian will accompany it. Non-governmental organizations are inquiring about helping, Fikes said, but Baghdad is not yet secure enough for them. For now, the Kuwaiti shipment will be enough. Fikes expressed hope that as Baghdad’s markets reopen, fruit and vegetables can be purchased within the city to keep the non-carnivores alive.
The creatures were vulnerable before the war. Sanctions imposed in 1991 after the Gulf War made specialized food and medicines difficult to import. The worthless Iraqi currency meant entry fees could not cover operating costs. Iraq’s invasion of southern neighbor Kuwait triggered the war 12 years ago. Kuwait allowed US and British troops to stage their recent invasion from its soil.
The Kuwaiti government has been at pains to let Iraqis know the war was not against them, but against Saddam. Kuwait has been at the forefront of aid shipments into Iraq, more willing to risk danger zones than many international organizations. ‘It’s very important that this food gets up there,’ said Abdullah Al-Enezi, the Kuwaiti coordinator for the shipment. ‘We see this as being for Iraqi kids. Zoos are mainly for kids. In a way, we’re helping them as much as the animals.’ Several hundred exotic mammals and birds in Baghdad may be in need of food, shelter and veterinary care, Sydney J Butler, executive director of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, said Thursday in Maryland.
Butler said the zoo association would raise funds to help Baghdad’s zoos, with help from the North Carolina Zoo and the North Carolina Zoological Society, as they did for the Kabul Zoo in Afghanistan. More than 300 animals are missing - only the lions and tigers remain. The big cats, who were obviously too fearsome for the robbers, have been left neglected and starving in their enclosures. ‘I am frightened to come here,’ said the zoo’s vet Hashim Mohamed Hussein as gunfire crackled from across the park on Thursday. ‘But I have to see my animals. They are hungry but we have no money to feed them.’ Mandor, a 20-year-old Siberian tiger and the personal property of Saddam Hussein’s eldest son Uday, was slumped against the green bars of his cage, his beautifully-marked coat hanging off his bones.
He looked up briefly as the vet approached, only to hang his head again when he realized his keeper was empty-handed. Next door, Sudqa, a nine-year-old lioness, got to her feet and let out a low moan. The remnants of her last meal lay in the corner, a white bone chewed over and over. Hussein said in all there were seven lions and two tigers, who each consume some five kilograms of meat a day. ‘Five kilograms of meat would cost me 80,000 dinars ($30),’ said Hussein. ‘And there are nine animals. I have nothing like this kind of money.’ Meanwhile, the North Carolina Zoo is heading efforts to aid public and private zoos in Baghdad, just as it did for the Kabul Zoo when fighting eased in Afghanistan.
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association said Thursday that its 212 members are making plans to help zoos in the Iraqi capital. The North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro and the North Carolina Zoological Society are coordinating the effort, said Sydney J. Butler, executive director of the AZA, based in Silver Spring, Maryland. ‘Through our network of people in the region, we can assist in getting funds, food and Veterinary items into Baghdad, ‘said David Jones, director of the North Carolina Zoo. ‘It is imperative that we have reliable mechanisms in place for supporting this effort. As urgent as the need is for humanitarian aid, there is also the need to help animals that have been suffering during these times.’
GEVHA- Grupo para el Estudio de la Violencia hacia Humanos y Animales. Educación
Humanitaria.
Group for the Study of Violence towards Humans & Animals. Humane Education.
http://www.jobs.ge/gevha
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/violenciaanimales/
by Benjamin Ehrman
Posted on April 18, 2003
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has set up a special fund in order to raise money that will be used to provide food, veterinary care and other necessities for animals in zoos in Iraq.
The action was taken in response to neglect resulting from economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations 13 years ago and looting that has occurred during the last two weeks. International Fund for Animal Welfare to Assist Desperate Animals in Iraqi Zoos and Elsewhere "We are alone here," said Baghdad Zoo veterinarian Hashim Mohamed Hussein. "Without help our animals will die."
According to Hussein, the animals in the zoo were last fed full meals on the day before coalition forces entered Baghdad. "(The animals) are hungry, but we have no money with which to buy food," said Hussein.
The IFAW, which will be working in Iraq in conjunction with the World Society for the Protection of Animals, has pledged $25,000 of its own to the fund. The Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad, which is based in London, England, and other animal welfare organizations are expected to undertake relief efforts in Iraq as well.
Sources:
International Fund for Animal Welfare
www.ifaw.org/page.asp?unitid=846
IFAW to Assist Desperate Animals in Iraqi Zoos and Elsewhere
The Associated Press
story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story& u=/nm/20030417/od_nm/iraq_zoo_dc_1
Nothing Stops Zoo Looters, Except Lions
by Rosalind Russell
© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.
GEVHA- Grupo para el Estudio de la Violencia hacia Humanos y Animales.
Educación Humanitaria.
Group for the Study of Violence towards Humans & Animals. Humane Education.
http://www.jobs.ge/gevha
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/violenciaanimales/
The American Zoo and Aquarium Association has started a charity program for the Baghdad Zoos, under the coordination of the North Carolina Zoo and Zoological Society. Their previous charity effort for the Kabul zoo has been very successful.
Read more at:
http://www.aza.org/Newsroom/PR_BaghdadZoo/
® Action Against Poisoning -- www.actionagainstpoisoning.com -- e-mail: info@aap.f2s.com
http://www.actionagainstpoisoning.com/pages/uk/iraq4.html -- Last updated on June 15, 2003