Adil Najam and Owais Mughal
The phase of unrest and ‘zulm’ that Pakistani society is passing through, now seems to have made inroads in the Animal Kingdom.
Three precious animals have died in Lahore area zoos in the past 1 week and from news it looks like all deaths were preventable. A giraffe, a Bengal tiger and a neel gaaye (an antelope) are those who lost their lives.
Following two news have appeared in national press which give details of these accidents.
(1) Daily Times of January 2, 2009
A zebra attacked a female giraffe in the city zoo on Thursday afternoon and killed it in presence of zoo staff and dozens of visitors. According to sources, three giraffe, a male and two females, were imported from Australia in 2007 at a cost of Rs 7.4 million and were kept in one compound without keeping in view the risk factors.
On Thursday, a zebra attacked the giraffe and kicked it to death. The zoo staff was also present, but could not do anything to save the animal. An inquiry committee has been set up to investigate the incident. It will present its report to the Wildlife Department director general in a couple of days. aaj kal report
(2) The Daily Jang – Web Update, January 9, 2009
After eating the meat of a dead antelope (neel gaaye), the Bengal Tiger of the Woodland Zoo located on Raiwind Road Lahore also died. Earlier the neel gaaye had died after being bitten by some poisonous insect. The staff of the zoo used dead neel gaaye’s meat to feed the Bengal Tiger who also died after eating the meat. The deputy director of Woodland Park claims tiger did not die because of eating ‘neel gaaye’s meat. They will conduct post mortem to find out the exact cause of tiger’s death. The exact news as it appeared in jang is below:
Some Other Posts at ATP:
1. Baluchitherium: The Beast of Balochistan
2. The Leaping Oxen of Kanjwani
intersting article lol kia baat hai
*sigh* nothing better to spend seven and a half million rupees on in Lahore than bloody giraffes?
I am willing to bet my hat that the staff who looked after them were undertrained and quite underpaid, and probably had no business being in charge of these large but rather fragile animals.
For those who dont see how it could happen–I’m going to guess an abdominal rupture, or the giraffe lost its footing resulting in twisted gut. This is just a guess, but the point is it’s not really very hard for an aggressive zebra to seriously injure another animal, even one that seems to be much bigger. And the staff watched and did nothing? They sound like a brilliant bunch.
It reminds me of the incident at a Punjabi show farm in which they imported many expensive Holstein milk cattle, the native cattle not being prestigious enough. The farmers around said the cattle would die if not looked after properly, and they were right…in spite of air conditioned barns and other amenities the fancy imported cattle all died. Instead of using an opportunity to spend that money on researching and improving local cattle, the landlord had to waste it all on importing something European because it just had to be ‘better’.
I’ve been to the Lahore zoo–it’s a nice zoo by third world standards, and could be a good place to educate people about the wildlife of the region and exhibit the kinds of creatures which used to be found in Pakistan. It’s not necessary to have all the obligatory big mammals of the African savannah present to have a good zoo. If the resources and enclosures are not there for giraffes–don’t buy them! The seven million rupees can be spent much better at home–on the rare ibex, or the highly endangered snow leopard, just to give two examples that come immediately to mind. Or for that matter seven million rupees could create a recovery program for the giant bustard, which Pakistan has graciously allowed the Arab royals to hunt to the point of almost certain extinction.
The zebra just kicked 2.5 million rupees to death–you have to admit it does seem rather a waste.
Sad Animals – they should be freed!!!
In (apparently) less important news, the massacre of Palestinians continues. No offense intended towards the ‘precious animals.’
One of the best ‘intros’ I have read in a long time.