I can always rely on China to haul me out of a writer's block. Further to my recent remarks about the poor status of animal welfare at the Adelaide Zoo, this report in today's The Age is completely outrageous!
There is just so much wrong with this article that I dunno where to start; a zoo (being an institution supposedly in the business of protecting the lives of animals) breeding a tiger and a lion ... for what reason? Or were they just locked-up in the same cage together?
Then there's the mother abandoning the cubs (which under the circumstances is probably completely natural, even though the in-depth analysis from the reporter attributed this outcome to "unknown reasons"), resulting in two of them dying of weakness [presumably from malnutrition/starvation]. Sure, this sort of thing would happen in the wild, but isn't there supposed to be supervisory care of animals in zoos? Surely the zoo staff would be tasked with paying extra special attention to newborn cubs?
And then there's the statement, "...zoo staff found a dog ... to feed the surviving cubs". Ah geez. Pretty lucky to have that dog hanging around – and she looks so impressed in the photo, too. What sort of outfit is this?
There's so much more going on with this story than has been articulated in this three sentence grab. I don't know who I am more angry with, a Government which treats its caged animals only slightly better than many of its citizens, or The Age, for spewing out this regurgitated, Chinese propoganda.
And don't be blaming all this on on-line content killing the print media – I paid the full $1.70 for the print version, and that's where the story was! Grrrr.
This poor girl's eyes are as dead as my faith in the international community to support both human and animal rights in China. Pic: http://www.theage.com.au
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