(ZOOS/ANIMAL WELFARE) A ‘monstrosity’ of a zoo is finally set to shut down after years of complaints that its animals suffered from maltreatment.
According to Goran Kovavcevic deputy mayor of Split, Croatia, the Split Science Museum and Zoo will close its doors and relocate its animals to different zoos around the country and the rest of Europe following years of efforts by activists and tourist complaints.
“We have told the zoo manager to start preparations and draft a program to relocate all animals,” Kovavcevic said.
The zoo’s monkeys will be sent to Germany, while the fate of the zoo’s 14-year-old tiger is still unknown.
Srdjan Marinic, leader of the local animal rights activists under the Marjan civic group, described the squalid living conditions of some of the zoo’s largest inhabitants.
“Bears live in a small concrete enclosure,” she said, “until recently there were five wolves in a cage and they had so little room that they constantly attacked one another.”
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Comments by visitors on the review site Trip Advisor are no less scornful.
One reviewer wrote, “A nightmare in Split – worst zoo I have ever seen in my life,” while another wrote, “It is monstrous.”
According to the Daily Mail, animal rights activists have campaigned for the zoo’s closure since 2006 with little success, until now.
World’s Worst Zoo?
Despite its infamy, the Split Zoo is far from the only blot on the zoological landscape.
In 2011, Malaysian zoo was dubbed the ‘worst zoo in the world’ after photos of an orangutan chain-smoking emerged.
In 2012, British singer and former Smiths frontman Morrissey wrote a scathing letter to the Indonesian government demanding the closure of the Surabaya Zoo in Eastern Java, which the Antara news agency called a “place of horror” and “death camp” for animals.
Due to the recent political instability in Ukraine, the Ukrainian government cut all funding for the Kharkiv Zoo. Ever since, the zoo’s animals have been fed and cared for solely thanks to the help of the global community and the good Samaritans of Kharkiv.
So while one of the ‘worst zoos in the world’ is setting up shop, there are many others in dire need of an overhaul.
Sign the Petition: Please improve all zoos in Indonesia by making a national committee which oversees all zoos and standards.
— Israel Igualate, exclusive to Global Animal
