Chinese zoos and safari parks treat their animals “barbarically,” including abusing them to perform tricks and depriving them of proper food and shelter, an animal welfare group said.
Hong Kong-based Animals Asia Foundation said its investigation of 13 Chinese zoos and safari parks between September last year and this month uncovered evidence of animals being beaten with sticks and metal hooks as well as tigers and lions with their teeth and claws removed, causing chronic pain.
The group’s 28-page report documents “the barbaric treatment of animals and the poor living conditions they are forced to endure.”
“A large number of captive animal establishments in China provide animal performances as a form of entertainment for visitors. The techniques used to force such animals to perform tricks are cruel and abusive,” said the report, which was released on Monday.
“Showmen frequently engage in negative reinforcement, whipping and striking the animals repeatedly, forcing them to carry out tricks that go against their natural behavior,” the report said.
The group said its probe also uncovered evidence of animals housed in “small, barren, concrete enclosures often in darkened rooms at the back of the performance areas away from the visitors.”
“The living conditions for performing animals fail to meet their basic welfare needs. Many of the animals have no visible access to water,” it said.
The report features photographs of bears being forced to “box” each other and ride motorcycles along a highwire, tigers prodded into jumping through flaming hoops, and elephants “performing uncomfortable and humiliating tricks such as standing on their heads, and spinning on one leg.”
“There is little educational value in seeing animals in conditions that do not resemble their natural habitat,” David Neale, the group’s animal welfare director, said in a statement. “Teaching animals to perform inappropriate tricks does nothing to educate the public or foster respect for animals.”
The report called on China to prohibit the use of wild animals in circus-style performances, prohibit the feeding of live prey to larger animals, and usher in a licensing system for zoos and safari parks.
China has been plagued by a series of scandals that has thrown the spotlight on poor conditions in many of the nation’s wildlife parks, prompting Beijing to draft the country’s first animal-protection law.
In recent months, 11 endangered Siberian tigers starved to death at a cash-strapped park in Liaoning Province where they were fed chicken bones, and two others were shot after they mauled a worker.
Allegations that the zoo had harvested parts of the dead animals to make lucrative virility tonics caused an outcry.
In Heilongjiang Province, authorities also uncovered a mass grave of animals — including lions, tigers and leopards — that died of illness and malnutrition at a wildlife park, state media reported in March.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the