I

t feels like barely a week goes by without an Indonesian zoo making world headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The most recent being Bandung Zoo in West Java. One international headline read: “Elephant sheds tears as she lies dying in squalid zoo. [... ] An elephant cried as she died in chains on the floor of a squalid zoo.”

In the last few days the Scorpion Foundation, Indonesia’s leading NGO calling for urgent reform of all zoos, has visited Bandung Zoo, twice. What investigators saw both shocked and angered them.

The zoo exuded neglect and starving animals. It appears most of the animals depend on visitors for their survival, feeding them junk food. This zoo is thoroughly deserving of its reputation as the “Death Zoo”.

Elsewhere in Sumatra there is Kasang Kulim Zoo, another wretched place where animal suffering is widespread. Orangutans, here, are incarcerated in cages that can only be described as inhumane at best — but horrific in reality. No one working at this zoo appears to understand the first thing about caring for animals, hence suffering is widespread.

In Jakarta, Ragunan Zoo should be a showpiece. Instead it is as poorly managed as any other zoo. Dozens more zoos all over Indonesia are full of starving and neglected animals. No one in government cares, but why don’t they? What kind of person can ignore such cruelty, not least when they are paid to stop it?

In recent years a new concept of “travelling” zoos has emerged. Dolphins, marine mammals that once roamed the oceans freely, now incarcerated in little more than ‘bowls’ of water heavily treated with chemicals and moved around the country to make money for someone. It is illegal to catch dolphins, so where do all these animals come from? Fishermen claim they are paid to catch the dolphins, an inconvenient truth the Environment and Forestry Ministry prefers to turn a blind eye to.

Is there no end to the amount of cruelty to wild animals and acceptance of a rampant illegal wildlife trade government is prepared to tolerate? I leave you with these wise words spoken by Mahatma Gandhi: “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Sean Whyte
London