Americans say long-suffering zoo not ready for animal additions

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Mangy monkeys tremble as young Afghans rattle their cages with sticks. Eagles bake in the summer heat as they languish in small, smelly pens. A bear sits listlessly, an open sore on its nose left untreated.

China is preparing to send more animals to Kabul's dilapidated zoo, but some experts say conditions there need to be improved first before subjecting newcomers to such hardships.

Jane Ballentine, a spokeswoman for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, which has coordinated an international relief effort to restore the Kabul zoo after years of war and neglect, says the time is not ripe for the Chinese gift.

"It's way too early for that," she said from Silver Spring, Md. "They can barely shelter the animals they have left, let alone feed them."

The Chinese offer -- two lions, a wolf, five white chickens, bears, deer, blue peacocks and wild pigs -- is generous, she said, but there is no place to put the animals.

"It's bombed out. The funds were raised with the expectation that they would go to rebuilding the zoo before the care and administration of new animals started," Ballentine said.

But the chief of the zoo, anxious to restore one of the few places in the Afghan capital designed for amusement, said Saturday that there were enough facilities to handle more animals.

China readies shipment

"A Chinese delegation, including their ambassador, recently visited the zoo and they saw that everything here is according to international standards," said Omar Shir. "The Chinese promised to ship the animals soon."

The plight of one of the zoo's inhabitants -- Marjan, an aging, one-eyed lion -- prompted an outpouring of donations from abroad after the Taliban fell. When Marjan died in February, the China Wildlife Conservation Association and the Beijing Badaling Safari World said they wanted to donate a replacement, along with the other animals.

On a patch of land near a dried-up river in a section of the city that was devastated during the 1992-1996 civil war, the Kabul Zoo now gets about 100 visitors a day. They wander along the cracked cement walkway that meanders through the sad collection of cages, most of them empty.

Life is tough for the remaining animals. Food is scarce, their cages are small and dirty, the heat is too much for many of them.

But their biggest source of discomfort may be young Afghans who seem to take pleasure in tormenting the beasts.

Monkeys are targeted with stones or their cages are rattled with sticks, sending them in wild chases in crumpled space, triggering painful cries. Eagles are often beaten by visitors jumping over protected fence in front of their cage.