After seeing the Giant Pandas at a very slick operation in Chengdu we figured that the zoo probably would be a "fun day out" as described in the Lying Planet. We wanted to get another glimpse of the Giant Pandas and there are some crazy monkeys and bright yellow mountain goat things that are native to china that we thought might be worth a look see.
So yesterday we toddled off to the zoo, we took the metro to the end of the line and then were going to walk the rest of the way. One of us forgot to pack the map which we thought would be OK as we knew we just had to walk south form the metro station. After we had walked for long enough in the blazing sunshine and 37deg heat that we thought we might like to kill each other, we hopped in a taxi and drove the rest of the way. The zoo was 40 Yuan entrance fee (about $7.50) which we thought was pretty cheap compared with Melbourne Zoo's extortionate prices. Little did we know that it was going to be cheap and crap!
Highlights or low lights of the zoo depending on how you look at it were:
- Seeing Siberian tigers
- Mislabeling of the panther and leopard (this made Brock very mad)
- the concrete waterless prison cells for pet dogs and cats including: poodles, Maltese, collies, Persians and other very sad companion animals
- seeing a boa constrictor eat a chicken
- grown man banging the glass in the aquarium to get the sea turtles to look at him
- parents forcing their children to climb the enclosure fences to get a photo closer to the animals, man eating or not
- large gonaded mice running around oblivious to their fate in the snake enclosure
- seeing the golden mountain goats that you find in north of China
- seeing Eastern Grey kangaroos (labeled as Pademellons!)
- watching a woman pour a whole bottle of lemon ice tea into the mouth of a sun bear
- watching a grown man and a small boy feed potato chips and biscuits to the golden monkeys
- the giant pandas that looked like they were so hot an miserable they would rather die
...........so you still want to go there?
2 comments:
I can't believe that they think dogs belong in a zoo or anything else from your list of abominations against the animals there.
I have heard horror stories about that place from the WSPA website or Nat Geo Channel or something but to hear about it from someone you know is far more disturbing for some reason.
I think the Melbourne zoo is limited with space for the enclosures so I can't imagine how awful it made you feel to see such cruelty first hand.
I wonder, if we donated some money to WSPA, would it help them? I am sure the Chinese government would see help as offensive and do nothing to improve the situation.
I think the only positive is to think of how well we treat animals in Australia, except maybe the Kangaroo's at Pucka, and think of the puffins here.
Nicole took Lil and Burns for a walk with Buf, Rust, Mum and Dad at the Docklands and they got to borrow our puffins new army jackets. They are so gorgeous that Nic said she is going to buy them some. They are cammo raincoats over green ploar fleece, with a tan and black fur lined hood. They are so cute. The only downside is that the dogs get mobbed by asian tourists dying to get their photo taken with them when they wear them. It's a bit of a contrast in what we value, compared with other cultures, isn't it?
Love Cas ox
Cas,
I think the only fix for the Shanghai zoo would be to burn the whole thing to the ground. Either that or they could get the people who created the very slick panda research centre to give them a hand to fix things up a bit...But then again the zoo has nothing to do with the olympics so I wouldn't hold my breath there.
Really I think the take home lesson here is that I will never go to a zoo in a developing country again, and I will be more grateful for what we have at home. The Melbourne zoo rocks!
Great to hear from you anyway, hope school is great, glad you liked your painting too. We were very worried it wasn't going to make it.
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