1. ZOO: 1 line, 35 counts<\/p>\n
Perancak Zoo, Bali's ugly little secret<\/p>\n
There is an ugly little secret in a beautiful corner of Bali.<\/p>\n
An adorable baby lion cub, emaciated and covered in sores, is
\nchained by the neck inside a tiny, stinking cage.<\/p>\n
Not far away his parents, both proud African lions, lie on the
\nfilthy concrete floor of another cage, chained by their necks to
\nposts.<\/p>\n
The baby's father has an open wound on his head and growls
\nangrily at anyone who approaches his cage. The lioness is not
\nallowed to see her baby, who spends all his time alone in his
\ndark little cell.<\/p>\n
This is Perancak Tourist Park, a private zoo which animal
\nrights activists say must be closed immediately.<\/p>\n
A recent report by the World Society for the Protection of
\nAnimals (WSPA) declared Perancak Tourist Park the worst of 10
\nIndonesian zoos visited by investigators over the past two years.<\/p>\n
Perancak was \"beyond rehabilitation and should be closed as
\nsoon as possible\", the WSPA report said.<\/p>\n
Animals were kept in pitifully small cages, hygiene was
\ncompletely neglected and the animals showed symptoms of severe
\nmental disturbance, the investigators found.<\/p>\n
The zoo managers even offered to sell one of the seven African
\nlions then in residence to investigators. \"Several of the lions
\nwere chained by the neck and others had open sores which had been
\nleft untreated and were infested with maggots,\" the report said.<\/p>\n
The zoo did not have a valid permit, but kept several types of
\nprotected species, including eagles, hornbills and crocodiles.<\/p>\n
When The Jakarta Post visited Perancak this month, things had
\nnot improved. The eagles are no longer there, and five of the
\nseven lions have been transferred to Surabaya Zoo by the Forestry
\nDepartment.<\/p>\n
A skinny, nervy pig-tailed macaque runs loose around the park.
\nAround its belly is a broken chain. In a corner of the zoo is the
\nanswer to its escape -- the wire surrounding its empty cage is
\ntorn open and the other end of the macaque's broken chain lies on
\nthe floor.<\/p>\n
Now it runs wild, climbing on the cages of other animals and
\nsidling up to visitors in the hope of being fed. It is in luck --
\na man is holding a packet of crisps. Within seconds the macaque
\nsnatches them and scampers into a tree with its prize.<\/p>\n
The macaque seems at first to have little fear of humans --
\nbut when one visitor bends to pick up a stick it squeals in
\nterror and sprints out of reach. Clearly this creature has
\nlearned from experience to fear humans wielding sticks.<\/p>\n
Activist Purwo Kuncoro, from the Bali division of Animal
\nConservation for Life or Konservasi Satwa Bagi Kehidupan (KSBK),
\nis horrified by Perancak.<\/p>\n
\"The conditions here are terrible,\" Purwo says. \"Many of these
\nanimals cannot be saved. They have been so badly neglected that
\nmany of them would have to be euthanized.\"<\/p>\n
Purwo and fellow activist Wita Wahyudi have visited Perancak
\ndozens of times in their research for the report, which was a
\njoint project by WSPA and KSBK.<\/p>\n
They have learned the owner of Perancak Tourist Park, about
\ntwo hours' drive east from Denpasar, is local businessman Murah
\nHardono. But the family who ostensibly runs the zoo, selling
\ntickets and snacks and feeding the animals, say they have no
\ntelephone number or address for him.<\/p>\n
Officials of the Department of Forestry say they, too, have
\nbeen unable to trace Murah.<\/p>\n
\"The biggest problem in Indonesia is a lack of education about
\nanimal cruelty,\" Wita says. \"We have never educated our children
\nto care for animals. Even in kindergarten, children learn that if
\nthey want to see a bird, they should put it in a tiny cage.\"<\/p>\n
At Perancak, Purwo crouches before the dank cage of a wild
\nboar. The animal, its ribs clearly visible through its skin,
\nwallows in a thick gray puddle of mud which takes up half its
\ncage.<\/p>\n
\"We don't want all zoos to be closed down,\" Purwo says. \"We
\nrealize that zoos are necessary for education and for breeding
\nsome species, but they do not have to be like this.\"<\/p>\n
Next door to the wild boar's cage is a cassowary. This
\nenormous bird, perhaps 1.7 meters tall, is kept in a cage no
\nbigger than three meters square. It darts about nervously,
\nbanging itself against the walls.<\/p>\n
Four peacocks stand in a large, bare aviary and in a
\nmalodorous pond behind a wooden fence, several large crocodiles
\nlurk in a dark-green pond. Near the crocodiles lie the remains of
\ntheir food. The bloody mess of flesh looks like it might have
\nbeen a dog.<\/p>\n
Perhaps the saddest sight at Perancak is the cage which once
\nhoused an animal that has disappeared to who knows where.<\/p>\n
At one end of the row of cages a glass-walled room sits empty,
\nits roof missing. This room is tiny -- surely not more than four
\nmeters square. What sort of animal could be kept in such a tiny
\nplace? Surely something which did not need much room to move.<\/p>\n
A tumbled-down sign reads: \"Kangaroo\".<\/p>\n
For a kangaroo, the famous high-jumping, athletic Australian
\nmarsupial, being trapped in a room like this must have been
\ntorture.<\/p>\n
Where has it gone? Nobody at Perancak can say -- but whatever
\nfate befell the Perancak kangaroo could not have been worse than
\na life in this place.<\/p>\n
2. COMMENT: 1 line, 40 counts<\/p>\n
'Krismon' leaves Medan Zoo in sorry state<\/p>\n
The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA)
\nrecently reported that Indonesian zoos are in a sorry state with
\nthe animals' welfare being largely neglected. The prolonged
\neconomic crisis (Krismon) has been blamed for the predicament.<\/p>\n
Anhar Lubis of the Medan Zoo and Joko Nur Prihadianto of
\nYogyakarta's Gembira Loka zoo share their stories with the Post.<\/p>\n
Anhar Lubis, manager of Medan Zoo, North Sumatra.<\/p>\n
The Medan zoo is currently in sorry condition.<\/p>\n
The zoo only covers around three-hectares of land, in contrast
\nto the ideal 20-hectares as required by the Indonesian laws on
\nzoo.<\/p>\n
With such a limited plot, the area should have been
\nestablished to lodge certain animals only, like for birds but not
\nfor a zoo that houses various species of animals.<\/p>\n
The zoo is now home to a total of 288 animals of different
\nspecies, including 22 species of mammal, 28 species of bird, 5
\nspecies of reptile and 20 species of fish.<\/p>\n
Since the economic crisis hit the country in 1997, the zoo's
\nmanagement have never reduced the quantity of food for each
\nanimal. We have to spend around Rp 1.1 million to feed them
\neveryday.<\/p>\n
We limit food for average zoo animals because they are not for
\nbreeding and so far we have several new members of wild mammals,
\nnamely tigers and orangutans.<\/p>\n
We are doing our best to provide sufficient food for the
\nanimals and we are also looking for donors to help us build
\nbetter cages for the animals as some of both the open and closed
\ncages that we have here are in deteriorating conditions.<\/p>\n
I personally think that it is better that Medan Zoo be moved
\nto another location, ideally one that is larger, equipped with
\nbetter cages and away from the heart of the city. This way we can
\nexpect more visitors and generate more income to improve the
\nanimal's condition.<\/p>\n
Joko Nur Prihadianto, Public Relation Manager of Gembira Loka
\nBotanical Garden and Zoo, Yogyakarta.<\/p>\n
We basically accept all the suggestion that the study has
\nrecommended us to do. We consider it as input for a better
\ncondition. We will do our best for the wealth of all the animals
\nhere. We try to do our best to provide them with environment and
\ntreatment that best suit their real habitat in the nature. This
\nis our basic principle in treating them in the zoo.<\/p>\n
There are of course several things in the report that we do
\nnot fully agree on. For example regarding the way it described
\nstressed animals. It, for instance, considered that stressed
\nelephants would keep moving their trunks. In fact, they do so not
\nonly when they are stressed, but also when they are hungry.<\/p>\n
They do so to remove dirt from their trunks and food.<\/p>\n
We are currently in the process of establishing a caging
\nsystem that best suits the animals' need, that best resemble
\ntheir true habitat. But, of course, we cannot do so all at once.
\nWe have to do so step by step, especially due to the limited fund
\nwe have.<\/p>\n
In 2001 we had a total income of some US$100,000 according to
\nthe evaluation conducted by the Ethics and Welfare Committee of
\nthe South East Asia Zoos Association (SEAZA). But we have raised
\nthe entrance ticket from Rp 4,000 to Rp 5,000 since April this
\nyear.<\/p>\n
This means that our income will hopefully rise up to some 25
\npercent as well, giving us more space to provide the animal with
\nmuch better treatment.<\/p>\n
Gembira Loka occupies an area of some 14 hectare of land, five
\nhectare of which are allocated for a botanical garden. It serves
\nas the lung of the city with hundreds of forest plants including
\nthe rare ones. The zoo accommodates some 1,000 animals of some
\n265 species.<\/p>\n
We spent some Rp 64 million a month for taking care of all the
\nanimals. This excludes the fund allocated for the cage
\nrehabilitation program.<\/p>\n
3. WATER: 3 lines, 20 counts<\/p>\n
Dwindling clean water
\nsupplies will be world's
\nbiggest future challenge<\/p>\n
A lack of clean water will be the biggest issue facing the
\nworld in the next 50 years and governments and business are
\nfailing to face up to the challenge, a senior Australian
\nresearcher said.<\/p>\n
Graham Harris of the state-funded Commonwealth Scientific and
\nIndustrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) told a recent
\nenvironment conference in Melbourne that business needed to
\nunderstand its dependence on the environment and create a new
\neconomic framework that focused on longer-term returns.<\/p>\n
\"Even if human populations were to level off in the next 50
\nyears, we will require double the present supply of energy,
\nmaterials and water. Water is the big issue for the next 50
\nyears,\" Harris said.<\/p>\n
\"The vast majority of the world's people already have only
\nlimited access to clean water, basic shelter and adequate food,
\nand the situation is not going to get any better. Without water,
\nfood, shelter and compassion, we are all lost.\"<\/p>\n
Harris told delegates at the ENVIRO 2002 conference that the
\nAustralian government's actions, for instance, \"fail to reflect
\nthe urgency... We talk too much and act too slowly\".<\/p>\n
The conference followed another event in Melbourne that
\nfocused on the impact cities have on the ecosystem with more than
\n50 percent of the world's population living in urban areas.<\/p>\n
At the end of that earlier meeting, around 40 environmental
\nexperts from around the world called on governments to control
\nurban water use as a key part of creating \"sustainable cities\".<\/p>\n
\"A lot of people think 'if I've got lots of green parks and
\ngardens, that's fantastic',\" said Harry Blutstein, director of
\nsustainable development for the Environmental Protection
\nAuthority (EPA) of the Australian state of Victoria.<\/p>\n
\"But hang on. They're using enormous amounts of water, often
\nnot recycled water. Perhaps an Australian city has to look a bit
\nbrowner during its summer.\"<\/p>\n
Convened by EPA Victoria for the U.N. Environment Programme,
\nits findings will contribute to a World Summit on Sustainable
\nDevelopment in Johannesburg later this year.<\/p>\n
For cities to become sustainable, they had to be treated as
\necosystems, the experts said.<\/p>\n
This required much more recycling and reuse of water rather
\nthan simply spending large sums on dams.<\/p>\n
It also meant new housing developments should incorporate
\nstormwater tanks, so that city people would drink their own
\nroofwater, as occurs in the Australian bush, Blutstein said.<\/p>\n
The inefficient design of high-rise buildings, which failed to
\ntake into account the environment, was also costly.<\/p>\n
Studies showed that the productivity of people could be
\nincreased by 15 percent or more by providing natural light,
\nnatural ventilation and other inputs from nature.<\/p>\n
Malaysian architect Ken Yeang, for instance, was building high
\nrises with windows that open and with gardens throughout the
\nstructure to filter the air.<\/p>\n
\"We're used to having a totally sterile environment in which
\nthe temperature doesn't vary within a degree. There's no breezes.
\nThis is not a natural environment,\" Blutstein said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/1-zoo-1-line-35-counts-1447893297",
"image": ""
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