Where did all the animals go?

Just a few years ago the capital’s zoo was one of the top places for family outings. However, its image has been severely tarnished of late, especially after a much-loved elephant and several other animals died. There is a lot of talk about the state of Kyiv zoo — not the successful municipal establishment with its crowds of visitors, but the place where animals live in horrible conditions and barely survive. The bad reputation was mainly caused by the former management. Let us remind that Svitlana Berzina, the zoo director in recent years, was fired in October by the mayor’s office’s decree. Oleksii Tolstoukhov replaced her.

Under the former management we heard only negative things about the zoo. Not just about the isolated deaths but also the staff quiting their jobs — some willingly and some not. The rumors of financial shenanigans were also not to the zoo’s benefit. Another fly in the ointment was the zoo’s exclusion from the European Association of the Zoos and Aquariums for improper keeping of the animals, and it lost the opportunity to enlarge and exchange collections with other European zoos, and received “one of the worst zoos” status. So the new management has so much to do. Apart from restoring the positive image, it is necessary to bring order to the zoo.

One of the largest problems now is the loss of a significant part of the animal collection. As the press service of the zoo reported, according to the data of the complex checkup connected with the resonant deaths of the animals in the 2008-10 period, the list of the species shortened from 396 to 339.

If in 2007 there were over 3,000 animals, in 2010 there were less than 2,000. The biggest losses were in expensive animals and birds. A unique couple of white cockatoos died — the only on the territory of CIS. Couples of Senegalese and Congolese parrots, a bald ibis and a macaw also died, coming up to a total of 200 birds altogether. Besides, the zoo lost 86 mammals of different species, 47 amphibians and 505 fish.

Oleh Zubkov, the head of the Yalta zoo, told one Ukrainian periodical that last year the black market distributors offered to buy primates and exotic parrots. They did not conceal that the birds belonged to the Kyiv zoo. So what happened to the lost animals actually, or why they died, is being investigated by the Control and Revision Office.

“The results of the CRO inquiry confirm the loss of the animals. It partially happened due to natural reasons, biological age, and partially because of shortcomings in the collections, which happened because of the exclusion from the EAZA. But there is evidence of financial misuse, though we will talk about this after the completion of the CRO checkup,” Anzhelika Komarova, the Kyiv zoo press secretary, noted.

The previous checkup, held this summer by the Ministry for Environmental Protection, points to the unsatisfactory work of the zoo. Back then the ministry’s experts rebuked the zoo for the fact that the boiler house was not in use. The old boiler house heated the zoo and last year there were issues with its operation, as it caused a temperature regime violation in the animal housing. However, in its first days, the new management had the boiler house repaired so that it was warm for the animals in the chilly days of October. We hope that other problems will be solved just as fast and effectively.

The water bodies, where the waterfowls are kept, were assessed as being in a poor condition because of the algal bloom, silting, contamination and drying up in some places. Not everything was fine with the expenses for the zoo needs either. Thus, in 2008, spending on the informational and educational events was almost 160,000 hryvnias, but this was not itemized. In 2009 legal and audit expenses exceeded three million hryvnias, and again, there was no itemization of them.

The tragic situation was highlighted by foreign experts who visit the zoo on occasion. The last visit of this kind took place in November, when John Ruane, the head of the Animal Protection Society of Great Britain, and Christian Janatsch, the head of the Animal Protection Society of Austria. It was them who initiated the exclusion of the Kyiv zoo from the EAZA. According to the conclusion of their last visit, it is better to close the zoo, as its condition is so horrible. “Such conditions do not correspond to European standards,” Ruane said during his visit.

As Komarova told The Day, the experts had previously visited the zoo a year and a half ago when Berzina was the director. Then they were assured that everything would be fine, that the zoo would do everything possible to rejoin the EAZA. But when they came back to Kyiv to see the condition of the zoo, they did not see any changes, not a single promise had been fulfilled.

“The experts saw a ruined zoo, almost half of the collection was lost. They were so overwhelmed that they said it would be better to close such a zoo than to try to bring it to a European level,” Komarova continued. “Their second message, which the journalists missed somehow, was that the experts will continue coming and consult, as [their job] is about collaboration not about war.”

Recently the media reported that Berzina sued Janatsch for 50,000 euros. “He came as ‘an expert’ many times and blamed me for different things I had no connection to. I am convinced that I will win the case,” she said. According to her, she will donate all her winnings to the environmental activity and for solving the problems of homeless animals. Berzina is the head of the All-Ukrainian public organization “Alive Planet” and the “Center of the Animal Identification” utility enterprise.

In any case the CRO will clear everything up. Now the zoo staff is working on creating proper conditions for the animals, and later they will take care of enlarging the collection.

“We hope for support from the local authorities: Oleksandr Popov, the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, and his deputy Anatolii Holubchenko. Starting from February, the zoo is to receive funds of 12 to 15 million hryvnias from the local budget. Unfortunately, some people wrote that we have already received them,” Komarova added. “Another false message from one media outlet was that after the tough comments of the foreign experts we started restoring a bear garden. But these are distorted facts. The project has been going on for five years. As the bear garden was old and did not meet modern standards, it was necessary to change the standards of keeping the wild animals in captivity. So the construction of a new bear garden was started. From time to time the project was frozen because of lack of financing. But we did not come back to building the bear garden after the visit of the foreigners. When Oleksii Tolstoukhov was appointed we started the next stage of building. We were in a hurry to under-pour the gallery before the first frosts. The bird sector required repair as well, and it was repaired within the framework of winter preparations. Now we will start reconstruction of the monkey house and elephant enclosure. It is necessary to understand that it is impossible to replenish and fill in the gaps at once in order to satisfy the needs of the animals and guests during the Euro-2012. In what concerns enlarging the collections, it is necessary to create conditions for housing the animals and then invite them to a new location.”

The project “Present a TV for Toni the gorilla” is about to start, which indicates that new approaches to animal care will be applied. Even the staff believes that the primate sector is one of the worst places — the animals there are treated like prisoners. The animals’ bad mood is not seasonal, they are unhappy as they live in poor conditions. And Toni feels it most of all, as he lives alone. That is why it was decided to give him a TV, so that there will be a possibility to show him good cartoon and films about nature and lift his spirits.

The zoo management recognizes that the image of the zoo was spoilt. While listening to the impressions of Kyivites who recently visited the zoo, it seems that people went to see what has not died yet. It is impossible to change the situation only with the help of PR actions. It is necessary to show that the work is being done and there are some results. Kyiv zoo has a year and a half for this. If everything works well, in 2012 the zoo will be able to apply for membership in the EAZA. But that is only application, not membership. It takes a day to leave the respected organization but it takes years to come back.