Ethiopian zoo poisons rare lions to cut costs

[AliceInWonderland]

This sickening story makes me cry b/c I don't consider myself a human; I consider myself a lion and I hate zoos anyway. I don't condone them so I never go to any except the San Diego Wildlife preserve down in Escondido.

Ethiopian zoo poisons rare lions to cut costs, official says

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) -- A major zoo in Ethiopia is poisoning rare lion cubs and selling the corpses to be stuffed because it can't afford to care for the animals, which are the national symbol, the zoo's administrator said Wednesday.

"These animals are the pride of our country," Muhedin Abdulaziz of the Lion Zoo told The Associated Press. "But our only alternative right now is to send them to the taxidermist."

Ethiopia's lions, famous for their black manes, adorn statues and the local currency. The country's emperors were long fascinated by lions, part of their connection with Solomon, the lion of Judah.

Wildlife experts estimate that only 1,000 Ethiopian lions, which are smaller than other lions, remain in the wild.

The Lion Zoo has poisoned six cubs so far this year, Abdulaziz said. He added that the poisoning has been going on at least since he arrived two years ago; the total number of cubs killed was not clear.

Federal wildlife officials monitor the poisoning, which is painless, according to Abdulaziz. The federal officials did not immediately return calls for comment.

The Lion Zoo is a popular attraction in Ethiopia, although international wildlife organizations have expressed concern about its ramshackle facilities. Built in 1948 by Emperor Haile Selassie, it houses 16 adult lions and five cubs in cages surrounded by barbed wire.

The dead cubs are sold to taxidermists for $170 in U.S. money (130 euro), each to be stuffed and resold, Abdulaziz said. Hunters also kill the wild animals for their skins, which can fetch $1,000 (780 euro).

"I feel so sorry about this," said Girma Chifra, 25, who was visiting the zoo Wednesday. "They're a symbol of our country. I didn't know they were killing the cubs, this is not good."

The zoo costs around $6,000 (4,700 euro) to run each month, but it only receives $5,000 (3,900 euro) in revenues from entrance fees, Abdulaziz said.

Mesganu Arga, head of the Information and Culture Bureau in Addis Ababa, said the city was looking into the matter.

"These are rare animals and a treasure to the country," Mesganu said. "We are promoting these lions."

Animal conservation groups expressed outrage at the killings.

James Isiche, regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Nairobi, Kenya, said the zoo should prevent the animals from breeding if it can't care for them.

"Enforcement to protect these animals is critical," he said.

The Born Free Foundation called for an investigation into the animals' treatment.

"We would encourage the authorities to take action to establish, at the very least, a sanctuary for lions and to enforce whatever laws are necessary to prevent those lions from being unnecessarily killed, sold or given into trade, alive or dead," said Will Travers, chief executive officer of the British-based foundation.

Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa....ap/index.html

[SVZ]

Zoos aren't bad places, yes they do pen up animals but they're main purpose is to breed animal populations, they closely monitor genes (through protein electrophoresis) and try to outbreed the animals as much as possible, reducing monozygosity.

A really good example is the cheetah, genetically they're almost the same individual, you can transplant a piece of skin from one cheetah to another and not have any rejection problems because the genes controlling their major histocompatability complex are the same. This is a HUGE problem because a virus that is dangerous and lethal to one cheetah is potentially (based on spreading, not resistance) going to eliminate the entire the species.

I used to believe zoos were just to display animals, however there are important conservation and breeding programs that occur there, that's the main purpose. Public viewing is just a means of funding.

A lot of the times we're fixing problems due to human exploitation, but in some cases it's just random stochastic events due to population bottlenecks and genetic drift. Preserving biodiversity is extremely important...we're in a period of the greatest extinction (There's been 5 previously) and it takes 10s of thousands of years to recover in levels of biodiversity. The difference is that levels of biodiversity are NOT expected to recover because we are destroying habitats irreversibly - creation of parking lots, asphalting, heavy metal contamination at industrial levels and cash crop farming do NOT occur naturally and do not fix themselves. Even something like farming is extremely devestating, you leach nutrients from the soil and allow invading alien species to excel, invading species do not thrive in areas that have high biodiversity - they enter an area that has been destroyed and thrived because they're polymorphic, cloning and can create vasts amounts of offspring in a short period of time (Most invading species are very genetically similar, meaning they don't evolve quickly [ie don't develop resistance to predators] - but they prosper because they're out of their natural element so there are no checks and balances (natural predators). Biodiversity is extremely important not just for conservation purposes, but also economic...there are so many undiscovered chemicals and potential cures that have most likely already been destroyed. Rosy Periwinkle for example reduced rates of childhood death from leukemia from 90% to 10%! It's a flower endemic to Madagascar and is already endagered. There's also the Babassu tree, which can produce usuable oil (Like the stuff that fuels your car) however it is in danger as well as the rainforest is being cut down to provide lumbers to countries like the US, Eastern Europe and Japan...

And Alice...I had serious issue with your nonchalant brushing off of the polluting of the oceans and that "fish will just mutate and evolve". That's not how evolution works, evolution is a reaction between the enviroment and alleles - it "favors" alleles that are more suited to surviving and increasing fitness - adaptions, but evolution has no "purpose", will or desire. it's a non-sentient process. Fish will not just suddenly evolve heavy metal tolerance because it's present in the enviroment. What will happen is that fish that do not already have heavy metal tolerance (Which is energetically exhausting to chelate, etc, which puts them at an evolutionary disadvantage in the past) will just die and go extinct. Mutations happen at a rate of about 1 per generation, and rarely are these mutations a) benficial or b) occur in zygotes aka heritable. This is why in areas of heavy mine tailing and heavy metal pollution biodiversity is reduced to only one species that is capable of surviving in that area.

Regarding the article however the people doing this are horrible, but that shouldn't reflect on zoos themselves being bad.

[Grimmlok]

Pfft, if humanity were to vanish it would only take 200,000 years for most of our footprint (not counting toxic radioactive clouds from crumbling nuclear reactors and ski boots) to be erased from the globe.

[SVZ]

I really thought that was true, but the more I learn about conservation biology the more that I realize it isn't...the more we pollute the more we allow invading and non-endemic species to thrive, eventually the entire planet will be a mass of Eichhornia crassipes and other invading species with high reproductive output.

[AliceInWonderland]

well i just think its awfully audacious to think that we could possibly have any kind of permantent impact on something like a planet! I mean seriously; its a planet and we're a species, a blip on the map, a blink of an eye. We mean nothing to the universe and dont have much power over that fact. In 5 billion years the sun will eat this planet whole anyway and none of it will matter.

what were we talking about again?!....
















http://www.carcosa.net/jason/blog_im...leepy-lion.jpg

how could anyone in their right mind harm a beautiful sweet creature like this?!

just look at her all curled up and dreaming....

[SVZ]

Oh come on Nihilism died with Nietzsche

[AliceInWonderland]

whats Nihilism ....and whatsa Neitzche?!?















*lick*

[greysfang]

Originally Posted by SVZ

Oh come on Nihilism died with Nietzsche

Not so, a nihilist just ran for Governor out in California. Her platform was secession from the U.S., gay marriage, and a 180 mph speed limit. I kinda liked her.

[SVZ]

http://www.nihilists.net/gov.html

LOL Apparently they are alive and well So there is life after death and it's politics

[AliceInWonderland]

um can you guys stop using such big foreign type words! and paragraphs, i hate paragraphs!!! its so hard to concentrate thoughout them....

[greysfang]

Originally Posted by SVZ

http://www.nihilists.net/gov.html

LOL Apparently they are alive and well So there is life after death and it's politics

Hell, Strom Thurmond coulda told you that...

[AliceInWonderland]

http://www.seds.org/nineplanets/nineplanets/earth.html 'Hi, I'm the earth and I can kick your ass!'

either way the fact is the sun will die in a few billion years and gobble up the earth along the way then shrink back down to a dwarf star.

[moomies]

me n my female family members call our gyno nihilist...he is very nihil.