Cairo Zoo conditions raise hackles of animal rights activists
Officials promise to fix the problems
July 5, 1997
Web posted at: 10:56 p.m. EDT (0256 GMT)From Correspondent Gayle Young
CAIRO, Egypt (CNN) -- After years of international complaints about the Cairo Zoo, Egypt is promising to clean up its animal act.
A recent tour by representatives of two major animal rights groups, though, showed how far the zoo has to go.
CNN's Gayle Young reports
1.2 M/30 sec. QuickTime movie
Elephants are chained in place almost every day of their lives. Large animals are kept in small concrete cages without even a bowl of water to quench their thirst.
Uneducated keepers routinely provoke the animals, in an effort to earn tips from zoo patrons. Polar bears suffer in Egypt's 100-degree heat. One of them, disfigured by disease, is forced to eat carrots instead of fish.
"They're kept enclosed in tiny Victorian cages. There are no amenities for the animals to entertain themselves," says naturalist Richard Hoath. "The zoo complains about lack of funding and lack of resources, but how much does a dead tree cost?"
The 100-year-old zoo is one of the most popular and crowded on the African continent, and it makes money. Officials say that on some holidays it has as many as 2 million visitors.
Egyptian officials say they are ready to use some of the zoo's revenue to improve living conditions for the animals. But critics say much of the money has been used to create landscaped walkways for people, rather than new habitats.
The zoo does have an enclosure for six lucky lions, who can run on grass and drink from a man-made pond. But 42 other lions remain confined in their cement cellblocks.
A pair of 2-week-old cubs were separated from their mother. Animal rights groups asked that they be reunited, and they were. And one of the animal rights activists garnered a promise that the disfigured polar bear would be transferred to another zoo.
Zoo officials say they want to cooperate, and they've agreed to accept advice from international consultants to make the zoo better.
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