Issue: ‘Osama, retiring at Surabaya Zoo’

Oct. 4, p. 21: Osama, a 17-year-old male African lion and one of six lions at the Surabaya Zoological Garden, East Java, is living proof that men are crueler than beasts. A number of animals are said  to have died because they were neglected as a result of a management dispute in one of the largest zoos in Indonesia.The lion has been lying, paralyzed, in a 3-by-4-meter cage for three years now.Before being caged at the zoo, Osama used to live in a villa owned by Gunawan Santoso — who was sentenced to death for murdering the president director of PT Asaba, Budiarto Angsono — along with dozens of other wild animals like Sumatran tigers and crocodiles, in Sukabumi, West Java.  In 2003, the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA) seized Osama as well as the other protected animals belonging to Gunawan and left them at the Wildlife Rescue Center (PPS) of Cikananga, Cisitu village, Nyalindung district, Sukabumi, for one year. Budiharto, spokesman for PPS-Cikananga, said Osama was in very poor health upon arriving at the rescue center. Its fangs had already been removed and the beast bore bruises caused  by sharp objects on several parts of  its body. Osama had also lost its hunting instinct. “When Osama was found, it  was skinny as it hadn’t been fed for several weeks,” Budiharto told The Jakarta Post. After one year at PPS-Cikananga, Osama was moved to  the Surabaya Zoo (KBS), in much better health. Osama later became one of the stud lions at KBS, siring four cubs, now also among the zoo’s potential breeders. (By Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya)

Your comments:

It’s extremely sad and heart-wrenching to see the terrible conditions of the animals; particularly the half-blind bison and Osama the lion. It only shows how heartless we humans are.
We capture them from the wild, cage them, train them using all kinds of painful methods then make money out of them, then treat them as if they were lifeless items.
If the government and organizations are not capable of treating these poor creatures, why not donate them to other foreign zoos which may be interested in taking them in, and abolish the zoos.
Any society that tortures, be it humans or animals, is not a civilized one.
Sasha
Jakarta

It is totally disgusting and unacceptable: Shame on you; the authorities responsible for the management of this zoo.
Jacobs
Denpasar. Bali

There is no doubt that the animal kingdom would be better off without humans.
Animals only kill when threatened or hungry, while humans use any weak excuse.
Sheldon
Probolinggo

Animals follow the credo of survival of the fittest, which is good for the species.
Humans on the other hand nurture and reproduce the weak and sick which may be good for the individual but not for the species.
It is heartbreaking to see “kings” treated so cruelly. There is no excuse for this. The abusive and horrific treatment of these helpless creatures is barbaric, disgusting. A disgrace to what it means to be a human being.
Julie
The US

All these poor and once-beautiful animals are basically sentenced to a slow and painful death when they enter Surabaya Zoo.
The amount of dead and dying animals is staggering and absolutely repelling.
And why all this — because of corruption and a power struggle between their human caretakers
(I don’t mean the ones on the ground, but rather the ones behind the scenes!).
The photos accompanying this article are heartbreaking to me and I am sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg!
Roland K.K.
Jakarta

So where is he going? What does “retiring” mean? Are they killing him?  It was horrific to hear about all the deaths since 2008 at this zoo. Indonesia I love you but you scare me at times.
John
Ubud, Bali