Dear Editor,
I was greatly disturbed by Hamilton Green’s February 7 letter in SN captioned ‘No animals in the zoo,’ in particular by his statement: “Halfway through I was embarrassed – no lions, no elephants, no adequate representation of our hinterland or animal life.”
It is not surprising that Mr Green was embarrassed since it was under his watch as Prime Minister in the 1980s that Kamla, the Georgetown Zoo’s last elephant, died a horrible death; electrocuted from a loose wire, a result of poor maintenance and poor management of the zoo at that time. In the 1990s the zoo’s three lions died, two from injections of expired drugs; once again the result of a shortage of resources and poor management practices.
With that background would it really make sense to add more animals to a zoo that receives very little public support and a relatively small budget from government?
Zoos are not just a place to take children to look at animals and make funny noises and faces in front of the monkey cages. Zoos should be a place to teach children and adults about the importance of animal welfare. Like humans, all animals need proper food, clean and safe drinking water, space and shelter and access to good health care. Until such services are available new additions to the zoo should be limited to rescued animals.
In an attempt to improve infrastructure, and health, food and water services for all zoo animals, (and educational services for humans), a master plan was launched by Protected Areas Commission (PAC) in 2014. A new Petting Zoo was constructed and is being launched today as a part of the Master Plan.
I had the opportunity to work on a small project to develop an improved monkey cage. This was a useful learning experience for all concerned and seems to have improved the quality of life for a small family of Spider monkeys which have taken up residence there.
This small project had a cost of half a million dollars; a small sum considering the improved smiles on the monkey’s faces. The four contributors who made this project possible were recently deceased Ronald Deen (Pritipaul Singh Investments), Bumper to Bumper Services, Protected Areas Commission, Dr T Madekurozwa Assoc and Rainforest B&B. This project shows how public and private sectors (donors, volunteers and PAC) can work together at relatively low cost to greatly improve the lives of our zoo animals.
Once infrastructure and services are strong, only then should new animals be added. And please, let us just focus on animals from Guyana; it will be years before the zoo will have the capacity to care for elephants, lions and other imported species.
Yours faithfully,
Syeada Manbodh
