Manila Zoo fetes 54 years of animal cruelty, PETA says

MANILA, Philippines - Manila Zoo celebrated yesterday 54 years of unnecessary suffering for the animals in its care, according to the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

In a statement, PETA said the zoo should not celebrate its 54 years of existence because this would only mean that it has been imprisoning animals in cages for a very long time.

“In 54 years, the Manila Zoo has changed little. Today, it stands as a monument to archaic thinking, greed, and gratuitous suffering. It has become a source of shame for an otherwise proud nation,” PETA campaign manager Rochelle Regodon said.

She said the zoo has been imprisoning animals in cages and pens “that are a tiny fraction of the size of the animals’ habitats in nature. Denied everything that is natural and important to them, animals at the zoo suffer – physically and mentally – from constant confinement, spending their days exhibiting neurotic repetitive behavior, such as biting the bars of their cages, pacing, and circling.”

PETA believes that even if the Manila city government pushes through with its plans to double or triple the size of the zoo, it would not be able to meet the animals’ complex needs.

The group cited the case of Mali, a 38-year-old elephant who has been living a solitary life for the past 36 years at the zoo. She reportedly exhibits a behavior called “favoring,” meaning she repeatedly shifts weight off one leg at a time, which veterinarians say is a clear sign of constant pain.

“She needs to be transferred to a sanctuary, where she can receive medical care from experts and finally have the chance to socialize with other elephants. Renovating the zoo will take years, and every day until then, she will continue to suffer. And even after a renovation, the zoo would still not be able support her needs the way that a sanctuary would,” Regodon said.

PETA said many visitors have commented on the strong smell coming from the animals’ enclosures. The zoo also hosts several wishing ponds that feature animals, including a snake, a crocodile, rabbits, and fish. The ingestion of foreign objects thrown into animals’ enclosures is a large problem in zoos around the world, and actually encouraging visitors to do such a thing – as the Manila Zoo does – is cause for alarm, Regodon said.

The group also noted that all the guinea pigs and rabbits at the zoo appear to be suffering from severe skin infections, possibly triggered by mites, which have caused them to lose patches of fur and develop crusts and scabs.

The ostriches suffer from severe feather loss, which has been caused by either self-mutilation or the pecking of flock mates, PETA said. Dead birds have been spotted at the zoo on several occasions, including one inside the ostrich enclosure, the group added.