This African Rhino is one of the surviving residents of Kiev Zoo. Image: Shutterstock.
More than a dozen animal deaths at a zoo in Ukraine have angered animal activists, but zoo officials claim they are not at fault.
An elephant, a zebra, a white camel and a bison are among the animals that have perished at Kiev Zoo, in the nation’s capital, since April this year. The death of a chimpanzee on September 1st, just three days after arriving at the zoo, and three penguins on September 4th, have renewed calls for investigation of the zoo and sparked dozens of protestors to take to the street.
The Kiev Post last month called the spate of deaths “one of the world’s worst”, and some members of the local community believe mismanagement is to blame. Sergey Grigor’ev, a former zoo employee, runs a website highlighting conditions in the zoo, which he says resemble a “concentration camp”. He claims the animals are poorly fed and many are kept in “cells” unsuited to their size.
Zoo director Svitlana Berzinal, speaking to Time magazine in July, disputed the accusations. She believes several of the animals have been poisoned. Her evidence? Hard-boiled eggshells found near the elephant’s enclosure, not normally part of the creature’s diet, and in the case of the camel, potatoes. In an earlier interview with the Times Online, she suggests a motive for poisoning could be “part of a plot” to have her dismissed from the zoo in order to take control of ticket sales and snack stands.
The conflict over responsibility has even knitted its way into the political arena. A commission set up by the Ministry of Environmental Protection absolved zoo administration of any wrongdoing related to the deaths, though several local experts refused to sign the investigation report, claiming it failed to take into consideration some of their concerns, such as inadequate dietary planning, untrained keepers and tiny pens, with one calling the report a “set-up” to clear the present zoo authority.
While the true details of the animal’s deaths remain murky, there’s little doubt conditions at the zoo could do with improvement. The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria turfed out Kiev Zoo in 2007 — before Berzinal stepped in as Director — citing concerns over animal welfare. And a Time reporter who paid a visit earlier this year describes it as having “barely moved on from Soviet times”, adding that the animal pens are small and run-down.
