The worst zoological offense I have ever heard of was the mass starvation of Siberian Tigers at the zoo in Shenyang. The Provincial authorities were very proud of the fact that half the Siberian Tiger population lived at their zoo. The only problem was that the zoo was privately owned, and when the owner began losing a fortune he wanted to close shop. The local authorities would have lost a tremendous amount of “face” by the zoo closure, and forced the owner to keep the zoo open. They did not pay the owner any money whatsoever, and so the keepers began feeding the tigers straw. Then nothing at all.
What resulted was the destruction of half the total Siberian Tiger population. Why were half the Siberian Tigers in the Shenyang zoo? I don’t know. What will happen to the species? I don’t know.
What I do know is that Chinese zoos need better maintenance, and this is an area where the US or other western countries could help out. I know there are plenty of foundations and organizations out there, like PETA, which would probably do a lot more good feeding tigers than worrying about the number of pigs killed and eaten in the US every year. That’s my take anyway.
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