Worst behaved at the Kabul Zoo - the humans

[Judi Lynn]

from the August 11, 2005 edition
Worst behaved at the Kabul Zoo - the humans

China is halting further animal donations to the zoo after a bear and a deer died.

By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Inside a cage, a pair of mangy wolves rest on a bed of straw. Outside the cage, an Afghan amputee tries to stir up the action a bit, tossing stones at the animals. A crowd of Afghans gathers, and the amputee tries poking his crutch through the chain-link fence to see if one of the animals takes a bite.
A wolf sniffs the crutch and walks back to a cool spot in the straw. The crowd moves off to the next cage.

Afghanistan is a wounded country, after two decades of war, so it shouldn't come as any great surprise that the Kabul Zoo is wounded too. In fact, the only surprise should be that Kabul has a zoo at all.

Aziz Gul Saqib, the zoo director, walks around the zoo that he has managed for three months and shakes his head.

"The big problem with our country is that no one knows what to do with animals. The war has damaged their minds," he says, passing by an open pen for macaques, surrounded by a moat of filthy water filled with trash. "They stand here and throw stones, shoes, and even their hats at the animals. They fight with the animals, they don't come to just see the animals."
(snip/...)

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0811/p07s01-wosc.html?s=t5

[H5N1]

1. I am anti-Zoo. Kabul DEFINITELY should have no zoo.

What are these people thinking?

[Judi Lynn]

2. There's a critical need to stop stealing their only habitat from them, too

Developing some concern for them before they are totally destroyed is more important than some kinds of people seem to recognize.

[meow2u3]

3. Some of the humans ought to be the exhibits

The war criminals, the Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Bush regime.