Bird lovers opt to stay in coops

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

As a bird lover, Suhari has had to refrain from visiting a bird park or zoo this weekend.

He used to visit Ragunan Zoo almost every weekend because not only it was a cheap place to bring the family, it was also educational.

"It's bad enough for me that the zoo is temporarily closed. It's even worse that we can't go to the bird park in Taman Mini Indonesia Indah (TMII) or other places where we can enjoy looking at birds as we never know whether the birds there are also infected with bird flu," the 41-year-old man told The Jakarta Post while strolling around a shopping mall in South Jakarta on Saturday.

Until the government declares the situation safe, Suhari said, he would minimize his contact with birds.

"I have several birds at home. I've had them vaccinated and keep their cages clean all the time. I can't get rid of them as I love them," he said.

Suhari, who has two daughters and a son, said that he would take his family to visit malls or ask them to stay home and rent movies at weekends from now on.

The government announced last week that 19 birds had been found at Ragunan Zoo to have been infected with bird flu virus and decided to close down the zoo for 21 days starting last Monday to contain the outbreak.

The government also ordered other zoos, animal parks and open- air recreations sites across the country to improve their sanitation and prevention measures to ensure that none of their animals were infected with bird flu.

Many zoos and animal parks, including TMII in East Jakarta and the Safari Park in Bogor, saw a major drop in the number of visitors.

The number of visitors to the bird park at TMII, for instance, dropped by half to below 40 just a day after the announcement.

"We haven't even had one visitor today even though it's already the weekend. Usually, more than 1,000 visitors come here every weekend," the bird park's manager Widya Brata told the Post on Saturday.

He said that because of the bird flu outbreak, TMII had seen an overall drop in the number of visitors since early this week.

Meanwhile, several malls, including Plaza Senayan in Central Jakarta and Pondok Indah Mall in South Jakarta, saw a slight increase in the number of visitors on Saturday.

"I think we've had a slight increase in the number of our visitors, at least today. However, I can't tell you the exact number as we haven't counted the total number of visitors over the week. We will have a clearer picture next week," Plaza Senayan's public relations officer Teguh Budiyono told the Post.

A visitor to the plaza, Kartono, 38, said that he and his family would avoid outdoor recreation sites, and instead visit malls or movie theaters at weekends, at least for the next several months.

"We don't want to take any risks. Who knows the source of the bird flu virus ... The government has given us so little information about how we can get infected, I've decided to put caution first for the sake of my family."