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The zoo is not a refugee camp says Director
View(s):National Zoological Gardens director P.M Anura de Silva yesterday called on authorities not to use the zoo as its hospital or Pinnawala as a dumping place for animals smuggled and detected at the Customs.
“A zoo plays an important role. We exhibit animals that are good specimens to educate the public as well as carry out research to breed animals that are under threat. We do not run a refugee camp,” he noted.
He said the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) and the Customs request them to take smuggled animals as well, and they are ordered by courts to take into custody wild baby elephants captured from the jungles by unauthorised persons while the cases are ongoing.
He said they do not have any space to accommodate such animals. “We have a zoo farm, it functions as the garden to grow food for animals and is used to quarantine sick and extra specimens.
“At present the Customs has sent us 400 freshwater turtles and tortoises. We cannot take such a big number. I had to write to them as well as the Attorney General to explain the situation,” he said.
“The plain truth is poorly transported animals bring diseases and ruin exhibits, kill good specimens and if they suffer mental illness they could endanger the visitors as well as workers,” he added.
He said they have limited resources, curators, keepers and vets to run the zoo therefore animals end up getting complications.
He said the Customs and the DWC should take steps to overcome the issues connected to holding the animals detected at the Customs. Meanwhile the Otara foundation appealed to President Maithripla Sirisena to intervene to prevent wild animals rescued from forests being kept in the zoo.
Ms Gunewardene has drawn attention to the case of four sloth bear cubs and a leopard cub now under the care of the DWC. Three of the bear cubs have been sent to the Safari park in Hambantota and the other is in Dehiwala while the leopard has been sent to the Pinnawala zoo.
“We have to stop the practice of sending animals from the wilds to fill zoos,” she said.