Killing zoo animals to feed other

Special Desk

An Indonesian zoo has said it may have to resort to slaughtering some of its animals to feed others. The Bandung zoo, which usually earns about 1.2 billion rupiah or $81,700 a month from visitors, was shut on 23 March. It is now solely relying on donations to keep its animals alive but says it is contemplating a worst case scenario, a news agency reported.

Zoo spokesman said it needed more than 400kg of fruit per day and 120kg of meat every other day to feed the 85 animals on campus, and that they had already started cutting down the portions. “We have around 30 dotted deer, and we have identified the old and unproductive ones to be slaughtered to save the carnivores, such as the Sumatran tiger and Javan leopard,” said Sulhan Syafi’i.

“The food is finished, but they still want to eat,” said orangutan keeper Saepudin, who said the primates could go into a rage and throw things.

Indonesian Zoo Association (PKBSI) head Rahmat Shah had said earlier that zoos under his association had yet to slaughter any animals to feed its carnivores. But he said the zoos would consider doing so in the next few months as a last resort if they were unable to survive the financial drought caused by COVID-19 and fail to receive help.

He urged the government to pay more attention to zoos amid such difficulties, with the association receiving no clear response from authorities despite having sent official letters.

“We do not know when the coronavirus outbreak will end. But if this does not end in three months, we will be in big trouble,” he said. The association had raised rupiah 500 million out of a targeted rupiah 2 billion to help feed zoo animals, Rahmat said.

Such efforts aim to prevent thousands of animals in Indonesia from starving as zoos have seen a steep revenue decline since the start of the outbreak. A PKBS survey conducted this month shows that 92 % of the association’s members in Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok and Kalimatan – 55 zoos – had enough food to feed their animals until mid-May.

Indonesia has the sixth-highest number of threatened species globally with 1,654 species on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list. The zoos within the association house nearly 70,000 animals from 4,912 species endemic to Indonesia and those from other parts of the world.