Wild animals are meant for roaming freely in forests and keeping them in zoos is no doubt an inhumane act that we humans do but what is more heinous is not to take care of these animals after locking them in cages.
The zoos situated in Gaza strip have crossed all the limits of inhumanity as a number of animals died there due to starvation.
Due to constant conflicts between the Israelis and the Palestinians, not only humans are suffering but the brunt of these conflicts was borne by the animals also. The reason for the same is that the zoo staff was not able to visit the zoo to give them food and due to this many animals lost their lives. Now bodies of the animals are lying there for getting mummified.
In 2007, a considerable investment was made by Mohammed Awaida for bringing animals when he set up South Forest Park but just a year later, many of them lost their lives when Hamas was attacked by Israel.
The Israeli attack lasted for almost three weeks and due to this, Mohammed Awaida was not able to reach the zoo which resulted in painful demise of lots of animals due to starvation and improper care.
The Israel-Palestinian conflict has its disastrous effect on the Al-Bisan zoo in Beit Lahia as well which is situated in the northern side of Jabalia in the Gaza strip. It has now only 20 animals which are alive while 80 have lost their lives.
Among the five zoos, Khan Younis is also the one that has been very seriously affected by the conflict, and as there is no authority to supervise, the animals had no one to look after them.
It is a custom of the zoo to stuff dead bodies of animals and keep them in their enclosed space, giving them look of a mummy. Photos of these dead animals tell their pathetic story and show us how they have been lying there for so many years. The zoo has lost 65 animals including a llama, a lion, a tiger, monkeys, turtles, deer and ostriches; the number of living animals is less than that of dead animals.
Mohammed Awaida tried to make mummies of these animals using formaldehyde and sawdust. He told Dailymail, “the idea to mummify animals started after the Gaza war because animals like the lion, the tiger, monkeys and crocodiles died. So we asked around and learned from the web how to start.”
In 2009, a zoo painted two white donkeys as Zebras as they couldn’t afford to bring more Zebras in place of those died in the war. This is enough to understand the pathetic situation of the zoos situated in the Gaza strip.
Source: APAI Images, Exclusivepix Media, Alamy & Google