Page 12 - aruba-today-20180823

A12 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 23 augusT 2018
Giraffe, rhino deaths raise alarm at former Buenos Aires zoo

By LUIS ANDRES HENAO proved.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina Then, the enclosure flood-
(AP) — Shaki was 18 when ed, she slipped and got
she died - too young given stuck in the mud. For more
the life expectancy of a gi- than six hours, her keep-
raffe. Ruth the rhinoceros ers made a desperate at-
was recovering from an tempt to rescue her using
infection until she fell, was four-wheel-drive vehicles
stuck for hours in thick mud and other machinery. By
and then died. the time they got Ruth out,
The recent deaths have fu- she was too weak.
eled charges by conserva- Wiemayer denied that the
tionists that an attempt by deaths of the animals were
the Buenos Aires' govern- related to changes in their
ment to turn a 140-year- food or stress from con-
old zoo into a less intensive struction near their enclo-
"eco-park" and relocate sures, saying that the work
most of its 1,500 animals had ended months before.
to sanctuaries has been a "While they're under our
poorly planned disaster. care, we try to give them
A coalition of more than a the best quality of life pos-
dozen environmental and sible," he said near Ciro,
veterinary groups has is- while the young orphaned
sued a letter denouncing a giraffe extended its long
"state of abandonment" at dark-grey tongue during
the site, where about 200 feeding time.
animals have died since "But we know that unfortu-
2016. And more recently, nately, we live with life and
a former zoo director filed death."
a complaint demanding The complaint filed by Ber-
an investigation into the tonatti to a special unit of
deaths of Shaki and Ruth, prosecutors that deals with
arguing that a lack of re- environmental matters in-
sources and the stress from cludes video showing rats
nearby construction work and cockroaches in the
contributed to their demise. enclosures of some of the
"A year ago, I said that this park's animals.
institution was not Noah's The park's developers ac-
Ark, but the Titanic on its knowledged that the foot-
course to be shipwrecked," age was shot inside the
said Claudio Bertonatti, ex- park, but said it was years
director of the Buenos Aires In this Aug. 13, 2018 photo, a rhino stands inside his enclosure at the "eco-park" in Buenos Aires. before city officials took it
zoo and consultant for the Associated Press over in 2016. Rodents, they
Fundacion Azara non-gov- said, are inevitable since
ernmental organization. the zoo. to Noah's Ark Animal Sanc- "The truth is that she was an food is often out on the
"Today, we've crashed into "The situation of captivity is tuary in Georgia and a Fiji adult female, but she had open, but they have hired
an iceberg." degrading for the animals, crested iguana to the San many years ahead of her," a company and also got-
The zoo was inaugurated and it's not the way to take Diego Zoo. said Guillermo Wiemayer, ten advice from a univer-
in 1875 on what was then care of them," said Buenos City officials acknowledge a veterinarian who has sity to help them deal with
a quiet patch on the out- Aires Mayor Horacio Rodri- that the process of closing worked at the former zoo infestations.
skirts of Buenos Aires. It was guez Larreta when he an- the zoo has proved more for more than a decade. "Until the deaths of the gi-
later a favorite haunt of Ar- nounced the zoo's closure difficult than they originally Shaki began showing signs raffe and the rhino, there
gentine novelist Jorge Luis in 2016. thought. Legislation had of what appeared to be had never been criticisms
Borges, who was fascinat- But the task remained to to be enacted to set stan- abdominal pain at around in regards to the well-being
ed by the tigers and wrote find new homes for the ani- dards and authorize the 9 a.m. on July 24. Six hours of our animals," said Gon-
about them in his books. But mals, hundreds of which still transfers. Experts feared later, the giraffe was dead. zalo Pascual, deputy sec-
as the megalopolis grew, remain behind bars at the that many animals were The necropsy found an retary of the environment
the zoo became surround- site in noisy limbo two years so zoo-trained that they ulcer in the wall of the and public spaces, who is
ed by an urban sprawl of later. would die if moved, even animal's stomach that ulti- in charge of the Eco Park
busy avenues with honking Developers of Eco Park, as to wild animal preserves. mately led to peritonitis. project, which will have
buses and screeching cars the site is now called, say Other animals were not It occurred just 10 days af- interactive learning mod-
near the animal enclosures, there have been improve- transferred because of dif- ter Ruth died following an ules, green spaces and the
where on a recent day a ments to the enclosures ficult logistics — they were infection in her vulva that animals that can't be trans-
solitary lion spent his time and the 45-acre (18-hect- too large or too tall to trav- later spread. Wiemayer ferred.
chasing his tail in circles. are) site has been closed el. said the rhinoceros had "We have more than 130
The antiquated enclosures to the public, reducing the That was the case of the been breathing heav- people focused on the
were widely considered stress on the animals. Some giraffes: Shaki, her partner ily and had diarrhea. She well-being of the animals,"
inhumane by modern stan- 432 of them have been Buddy and their calf, Ciro. also suffered what he said he said. "Nowhere in the
dards, as were the noisy transferred so far, including Nothing, however, indicat- were some "scratches" af- world do you have the
environment and pollution, two grizzly bears sent to The ed that Shaki was at risk of ter she was attacked by a amount of professionals per
and pressure from animal Wild Animal Sanctuary in death. Giraffes in the wild male rhinoceros. But over- animal that we have here
rights groups grew to close Colorado, three alligators live to about 25 years. all, Ruth's condition had im- at the Eco Park."q