KEMAMAN: The Kemaman Municipal Council has refuted claims by two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that animals kept at the Kemaman Zoo here are living in appalling conditions.
It has also denied that several resident animals had reportedly died under suspicious circumstances over the past year, including gibbons, tapirs and sun bears.
Terengganu state secretary Datuk Wan Nawawi Wan Ismail said that he was briefed on the allegations by council secretary Ahmad Faris Abdul Razak after an investigation was carried out at the zoo in consultation with veterinarians and animal handlers.
Nawawi said that the council, which oversees the zoo, had also explained in detail the outcome of its investigations to the Wildlife and National Parks Department.
“It has been found that the allegations are not true and that zoo authorities had taken appropriate measures for the benefit of the animals,” he said in response to the allegations by Malaysian Friends of the Animals, and Friends of the Orangutans.
The two NGOs had called on the zoo, which began operations in 2009, to improve the welfare of its resident animals at once; and for the Wildlife and National Parks Department to intervene to alleviate their suffering.
Nawawi said that zoo officials had addressed several cases highlighted by the NGO’s, including that of a baby orangutan and a tiger being placed in cramped cages; an underweight elephant with its leg chained and left out in the rain; an obese orangutan suffering breathing difficulties; and the death of many animals including bears.
He said that the male baby orangutan had to be separated from its mother as she had a weird tendency to mate with him; and to enable the treatment of the mother for a skin disease, and the baby for an eye infection. To achieve this, the baby was temporarily placed in a small cage so as to easily retrieve him for treatment without using sedatives.
On the chained elephant, he said that the animal was temporarily placed at a ‘night stall’ enclosure, owing to a faulty hydraulic gate to its regular enclosure.
Meanwhile, Wildlife and National Parks Department officials had approved having the tiger placed in a small cage pending the repair of the electric perimeter fencing.
Also, there is no obese orangutan at the zoo.
Finally and most importantly, there were no deaths of zoo animals, especially bears, for the whole of last year, with some transferred to the A’Famosa Zoo in Melaka.
Faris stressed that the council took note of the allegations in a positive manner and will ensure that the animals’ welfare will always be taken care of.