Shanghai Zoo: Council take action!
Written by Uln on August 20th, 2009You haven’t really seen a city until you have been to its zoo. I have known this fact since I was 5 years old, and after many years I suddenly remembered it again last Sunday, and I decided it was about time I went to the Shanghai zoo.
When you grow up you realize zoos have a good side and a bad side. I still enjoy watching a tiger as much as before, but now I have more of an environmental conscience, and I can’t help a sense of guilt at the thought that my joy costs its freedom. Fortunately, the clever sign at the entrance reassured me that the animals environment was taken care of.
NOT!
I was shocked by the behaviour of a big part of the Chinese visitors to the zoo. In spite of all the forbidden signs they kept throwing all sorts of food at the animals. Parents encouraged their little kids, and they all made fun when a monkey could not open a sealed packet of chips or a can of soda. Dozens of people watched and laughed, and nobody thought it was wrong, no guards to be seen either.
They were putting the animals in danger of cuts, poisoning, etc, and in the same time they made the cages so dirty that some animals were literally living in a garbage dump. Some kids were also putting themselves in danger by jumping the security barriers or hand-feeding monkeys.
But what made me saddest of all was to see the king of the junkyard, the Lion, who was taking a lazy nap after lunch. The public had come to the zoo to hear it roar, and they would hear it roar. In 5 minutes I saw 3 bottles of water full of water fly towards the lioness head. She was so used to it that she didn’t even move when she got hit in the paw.
What’s up with Shanghai? I am really surprised because I always considered our city a civilized place. How can people have such little respect for those beautiful animals? And how can the council allow this to happen? I hope somebody puts an end to this situation immediately, it hurts the animals, and it gives a sad image of the city for the Expo.
For comparison I add a picture I took in the zoo of Pyongyang, were as far as I know I was the only visitor of the day. I complained that the animals received political indoctrination, but otherwise the place was much cleaner than Shanghai zoo.
BTW: Kim never travelled further than Russia.
21
AM
I threw a banana and candies to a monkey when I was little,and watch it eat. It was so much fun! I thought it’s a natural communication between people and animals. The problem is we have so many people in Shanghai. For a monkey, one bannna might be fun,but being burried in a banana trash mout is definitely not.
[Reply to comment]
21
AM
Yeah, it is a natural impulse to give food to the animals and I guess most of us would do it if it were allowed. But it is not allowed, and as you see there are good reasons for that.
And especially the bottles of water with the lid on thrown violently at the lions are not fun.
Really, I like zoos and I have been to the zoo in many different countries. I never seen anything like Shanghai.
[Reply to comment]
21
AM
I’ll never visit another zoo in China again; if you think that the Shang Hai zoo is bad don’t come to Shen Zhen. I have never in my life seen any thing like it; they actually had a tiger without teeth where the visitors could sit down by it and take pictures. Forget it zoos in China suck big time.
[Reply to comment]
21
PM
Shocked and sad! I haven’t been to zoo for ages cuz the miserable living condition of the animals and lack of management from administration. Now it is even worse. If our government doesn’t know how to treat animals and how to manage a zoo,then maybe they should consider to shut it down and let the poor animals free or move to a better place to live.
The purpose of visiting the zoo for children is to know animals and to respect the creatures, instead of making fun of them or play “with” them. The whole society has serious problem with the animals.
http://1home.hainan.net/publicforum/Content/free/1/1659656.shtml
[Reply to comment]
22
AM
I thought you have been used to many Chinesenesses…
[Reply to comment]
22
PM
It shows the true heart of a society on how they treat their beasts. Of course there is still evidence of human slavery and feudalism here so who would really be surprised?
[Reply to comment]
23
PM
China is just one big zoo by itself, filled with people behaving like monkeys in these days, quite long gone is our dignity and honour.
[Reply to comment]
23
PM
enforcement and awareness should be put into practise
[Reply to comment]
23
PM
shanghai people civilised? ha ha ha. great joke! Although of course they will probably blame all this on the waidi ren. beijing is just the same. the zoo there is a disgrace.
for comparison, and just a short train from shenzhen, visit hk. the worst behaviour I saw was someone using the flash to take photos of the pandas at ocean park. and even then the other visitors told them off.
[Reply to comment]
24
PM
Horrible. Sounds similar to zoos in much of China. However, last time I was in Beijing, the Beijing zoo was substantially better. There wasn’t nearly the same level of disgusting behavior.
I did see some teenagers feeding sausages to bears, despite the large warning signs all around them. I had no problems telling them off in public. They were embarrassed enough to scuttle off after a few minutes.
[Reply to comment]