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Two Himalayan brown bears at the shambolic Islamabad zoo will be moved to Jordan and not the Ayubia National Park. This comes just weeks after elephant Kaavan, considered the loneliest in the world, was flown to Cambodia as we will unable to take care of him.
The Islamabad High Court ruled that the pair of bears should be moved abroad stating that zoos were ‘concentration camps’ and that no animals shall be moved to other zoos unless there is a decent sanctuary in the country. The remarks show how we have failed to take care of animals who suffer years of neglect due to the conduct of government departments and are at the mercy of untrained caretakers.
Elephant Kaavan suffered years of neglect and was chained for six years which affected his mental health, drawing global condemnation. It took years of efforts by animal rights activists included music legend Cher to finally convince the authorities to allow him to be shifted to a sanctuary. His departure was a sharp reminder that we were unable to take care of the only Asian elephant in the country.
In April, the court ordered to shift all animals from the Islamabad zoo but it was revealed that twelve animals and birds died while 513 were stolen during relocation. A pair of lions died on their way to a private zoo while a shocking video emerged of untrained caretakers lighting their enclosure on fire instead of using a tranquilizer.
A similar condition of negligence existed at Peshawar Zoo where an African giraffe has died under mysterious circumstances. The zoo was inaugurated only two years ago but has reported several deaths of animals, leading to a strong protest by civil society members. The Karachi zoo is not different and many animals need urgent care.
Zoos lack the capacity and resources to look after animals. A law exists to punish anyone killing an animal in a cruel manner but only provides a punishment of six months. We need more stringent laws for violence against animals to stop such incidents. We should shut down all zoos if we are unable to care for animals.
The concept of zoos has changed drastically and should no longer be where animals are behind cages but rather an environment should be created like their natural habitat. The government also set up a sanctuary and move all animals out of zoos to a better place where they could be taken care of.
