Kyiv’s Zoo is on the list of the world’s worst zoos. The ranking was made by an NGO composed of American journalists. Our zoo is found alongside zoos in Egypt, India, Iraq, China, Romania, Bangladesh, and North Korea. Only in 2008, 51 animals died in Kyiv’s zoo, among them an elephant, a white camel, and a bison — just in the past few months. Other zoos face the same problems. For example, two gorillas died in Cairo’s zoo, and two years ago men broke into the zoo and killed two camels. Eleven Siberian tigers simultaneously died of a disease in China. Over 20 rare animals died in the Bangladeshi Zoo, and the zoo’s head was discharged after a giraffe died there. However, the head of Ukrainian capital’s zoo Svitlana Berzina considers that “journalist organizations should not assess the work of zoos, as there are profiling organizations to do this.” However, two years ago our zoo was excluded from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria, EAZA, specifically because of the bad conditions for animals. What is it if not a profiling body? At the moment the zoo is being inspected by a commission of the Ministry of Natural Environment Protection. The zoo defenders consider that it should cross all t’s in the affairs linked to the death of animals. The capital Prosecutor’s Office has also promised to publish the results of the zoo’s administrative and financial work, but the summary is not ready yet.
COMMENTARY
Ivan PARNIKOZA, a coordinator of establishing the nature-preserving objects at Kyiv’s ecological-cultural center:
“There are various opinions concerning the zoo’s work. But all this comes to the fact that the conditions of keeping the animals in the zoo are far from perfect. This may be connected with the conflicts concerning the commercial usage of the zoo’s area and the intentions of the Kyiv Municipal Administration, which wants to liquidate the zoo and turn its area into a construction plot. The official documents have not been published yet, so it is hard to tell what is going on in reality. But if one asks the zoo’s head, she asserts that the elephant and camel were poisoned intentionally. This has been confirmed by veterinary expertise reports. Why would one poison them? According to one version, this was done to discredit the zoo’s administration and transform its area into something more profitable. Zoo defenders criticize today’s administration of the zoo for treating the animals badly. But on the other hand, it is hard to understand how, under conditions of such a low funding, good care can be provided. As for the Day of Silence and actions aimed at drawing public attention to the zoo, all of this is present. The zoo’s staff has recently undergone certain changes, and many experts view this differently, because people who had worked there for a long time — experts in their respective fields — were discharged because of a conflict, and this has also affected the state of the zoo. The zoo is going through hard times. But it should be remembered that there is still a zoo in the city, and one should do everything possible not to lose it altogether.”
