Earlier this year a video of a distressed-looking skeletal sun bear was shared more than 2,500 times on Twitter. Now animal rights groups say an astonishing 90% of these zoos should not be allowed to operate.
DAVE BURKE: ‘A starving bear, monkeys in tiny, rubbish-filled cages and chained tigers forced to ‘pose’ for pictures with smiling tourists. These are just some of the distressing sights that have greeted visitors to zoos in Indonesia this year. Now animal rights groups say an astonishing 90% of these attractions should not be allowed to operate. Earlier this year a video of a distressed-looking skeletal sun bear was shared around the world…
In June shocking video of a sun bear at a zoo in Singkawang was shared more than 2,500 times on Twitter. The clip shows the skeletal animal stretching as tourists look on… And there was widespread condemnation as pictures emerged of animals living in filthy conditions at another zoo… Shocking pictures taken at a mini zoo in Cilodong, West Java, show animals in tiny cages surrounded by litter, were met with horror… Another video filmed in March at the Taman Safari Cisarua in West Java shows a trainer appear to lash out at a tiger to make the animal look at a camera while visitors pose behind it…
These are among a string of controversies which have prompted calls for urgent reform to end the suffering. Marison Guciano, of the Indonesia Animal Welfare Society, told the South China Morning Post: “According to a search by wildlife monitoring group the Scorpion Foundation in 2017, around 90% of zoos in Indonesia are unfit for habitation. “I think the situation has not changed much now.” He said most zoos fail to meet five key criteria – keeping animals free from hunger and thirst, free from pain and injury, free from discomfort, free to behave as they would in the wild and free from stress’. SOURCE…