Imagine a zoo where monkeys are poked at by visitors as idle guards shrug their shoulders. Where the lone bear eats an empty cigarette pack, as the zoo’s other starving animals also waste away. Where the main “attraction,” a lion, loses an eye in a grenade attack. Where two elephants and a zebra are killed in crossfire between soldiers fighting a civil war. Where a mortar round destroys the entire parrot exhibit.
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Welcome to Kabul Zoo, proudly serving Afghanistan’s animal-loving public since 1967! And now, I just learned, Kabul Zoo officials are in the market for more exotic animals.
“Afghanistan wants an elephant, a leopard and a snow leopard from India because at present it does not have these animals,” zoo director Aziz Gul Saqeb told Agence France-Presse last week.
Let me suggest that Afghans might be more interested in other things. Peace, for example. An end to war and suffering. An honest government, perhaps. Prosperity, just possibly.
But more animals for the horrific Kabul Zoo? Give the animals a break!
Blogging off,
Will
P.S. I’m interested in what’s going on in your local zoo — check out our Zoo Check program.