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Tuesday, June 27 2006, 22:20:57 PM Search NST :
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Set up animal sanctuaries instead
22 Jun 2006
RAIHANA SOUKET ALI Petaling Jaya
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RECENTLY, I visited the National Zoo in Ampang. It is in a deplorable state. The animals are a sad lot, skinny (the lion was, seriously, a bag of bones) and looking depressed.
There was one section, with birds, snakes and ponies, where visitors can touch and play with animals. Sadly, there was no one to monitor the activities of visitors. Children and adults were abusing the animals, pulling them or trying to hold them.
I saw one man pull the feathers of a parrot to make it scream while another tugged hard at the rope attached to a pony to take some photos. Zoo staff should have been there to control the crowd.
The hostility shown by some visitors towards animals is surely the result of a lack of education on animal welfare.
Mahatma Gandhi said that the greatness of a nation is seen in how it treats its animals. In Malaysia, even the authorities entrusted with looking after animals and protecting them seem to lack the most basic knowledge on how to care for them.
Many of the enclosures are cramped and unkempt. Any caring human being can easily see that the enclosures for the giraffes and lions are too small. It is better to put them down then condemn these poor animals to life imprisonment in these places.
A zoo is not a natural environment for animals.
An animal sanctuary is more humane. The animals get to live in surroundings similar to their natural habitats and roam free over a larger territory.
I hope our zoo officials will seriously consider shutting down these animal-torture chambers and set up animal sanctuaries instead. I urge them to train all staff on how to look after the animals.
The Malaysian Nature Society has a better track record in education than government departments such as the Department of Veterinary Services and the Wildlife Departments.
I suggest the Government make it compulsory for all its civil servants dealing with animals to undergo training under the Malaysian Nature Society education programmes.
Current Rank:4.9 ( 5-High 1-Low )
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Tuesday, June 27 2006, 22:32:43 PM Search NST :
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New Straits Times » Letters IKLANMAYA
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• Kudos to Johor Immigration Department
• Plant food crops on idle land
• Two areas need a boost
• Listen to comments from public
• Delays by IRB equal opportunities lost
• Not amused
• Don't squander public funds
• Unfortunate soccer fans
• What a waste of time and effort
• Mixing up faith and culture
• Quota is way too high for boats to use up
• Why the anger?
• Stop this public slanging, please
CHECK 'EM OUT
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Shutdown is not a solution
27 Jun 2006
A.S. Petaling Jaya
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I REFER to the letter by Raihana Souket Ali ("Set up animal sanctuaries instead" — NST, June 22).
While I agree that much more needs to be done for animals at the National Zoo in Kuala Lumpur, I don’t think the solution lies in shutting down zoological parks and creating animal sanctuaries instead.
The problem with Zoo Negara appears to be one of management rather than the existence of the zoo itself.
The keepers must strictly ensure that none of the zoo animals suffers abuse from any visitor.
Children must be carefully supervised and zoo keepers must not hesitate to reprimand visitors who abuse any animal. I am also curious about a particular observation made by the writer about the lion as "looking skinny and depressed".
Is the writer suggesting that Zoo Negara officials are underfeeding the lion to the point of starvation?
I find this rather incredible as the zoo has its own vet team to take care of the animals.
I would also like to know how the writer was able to understand the psyche of an animal to say it was "depressed"? What if the animal was merely tired or resting?
After all, lions sleep for most of the day unless it is time to hunt for game. And a lion is able to go without food for a few days once it has had its fill.
The writer must realise that if the lion was in the wild, it may not even have survived this long for lack of food or even have succumbed to diseases as we have seen in animal documentaries.
Life in the wild isn’t about freedom but more about survival of the fittest.
In a zoo setting, the animal has the privilege of having its food served on time and its medical requirements met.
I don’t know the answer myself, but did the writer do a study to find out how long that particular lion has been living in Zoo Negara before making her severe criticisms?
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