Some fear for fate of animals promised to Afghanistan zoo

Los Angeles Times

BEIJING -- Two lions, two bears, a wolf and about a dozen other wild animals are preparing to journey to Afghanistan as a Chinese safari park plays Noah to the war-ravaged country's ark.

The well-intended gesture, however, has provoked an outcry from international animal rights advocates, who argue that the Kabul Zoo in the Afghan capital is in no condition to accommodate these furry peace ambassadors.

"To send these animals to Kabul now flies in the face of everything the Chinese government has done for conservation," said John Walsh, international project director for the London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals. "It's not fair to the animals. It will subject them to a lifetime of cruelty and suffering.''

The Chinese donors say their government has stayed out of the effort and that their decision to send the creatures was based on assurances from Kabul that they will be adequately cared for.

Inspiration for the gift came from the death in January of Marjan, the grenade-blinded lion who had become a symbol of Afghanistan's suffering.

"We didn't even have to think," Yi said. "We just wanted to send them a replacement lion."

Decades of war have left the Kabul Zoo with more stuffed animals than live ones. Most of the latter were either killed by bombs or eaten by fighters of the Taliban.

Meanwhile, the Chinese animals have already been put in quarantine pending a flight to Kabul this month.

Chinese critics are also questioning the timing and wisdom of the donation.

"If we want to help Afghanistan, we could give them something else," said Mang Ping, a researcher with Friends of Nature, a Beijing-based environmental nonprofit group. "But an animal is a living thing. Unless you can absolutely guarantee their safety, we really shouldn't do it."