Animals caught in crossfire, trapped at Gaza zoo
The destruction to the zoo has shaken Hissi badly.
"You can see that the cages for the animals are badly damaged. When you
see it, it makes you sad because they are in a jail now," he said,
standing by the lion enclosure. A lion and lioness lie in a steel pen inside
their enclosure, the roof of which has collapsed from the force of the nearby
explosion.
 |
|
A Hamadryas baboon (L) looks at the carcass of another
baboon inside their cage at the Bisan City tourist village zoo, in Beit Hanoun,
Gaza, on August 14, 2014. (AFP/File Roberto Schmidt)
|
They make little noise, standing only when Hissi
tosses in a couple of dead chickens. And in a filthy three-by-three meter
(10-by-10 foot) pen, seven mange-ridden wild dogs zig zag around their
enclosure incessantly. Hissi was insistent there had been no militant weapons
inside the zoo. But buckled rectangular metal rocket launch systems lay among
the debris on the edge of the park, near a large building that was also hit by
Israeli air strikes. Some appeared still to be loaded with rockets. Hamad, the
park's director, was adamant that the rockets had not been fired from inside
the park.
"Maybe there was a base around Al-Bisan village
or next to it. But the enemy decided and insisted on punishing Al-Bisan
village," said the neatly-dressed director."They punished the park
for the presence of the rockets nearby but not inside the village," he
said. The Jabaliya area north of Gaza City is home to the Strip's second park,
the Jabaliya Zoo, which escaped major damage.
Completed just six months ago, the park's exhibits
range from pigeons and a German Shepherd in cages to six lions. All were
smuggled through tunnels from Egypt. Although the park in Jabaliya was
relatively unscathed, bombardment had impacted on the animals psychologically.
"It was the noise that really affected the
animals here. The sound from the bombing terrified the animals.
When the birds heard the shelling they would take
flight and flap around the enclosure in panic because they were so
scared," said Aamir Abu Warda, director of the Jabaliya park. "The
continuation, the repetition of this killed several birds, and other animals
abandoned their young ones, some of which died," he said.
Ma'an staff contributed to this report.
PatoAlf. Frente
de Liberación Animal MDP, Psicología.
Gracias por visitar esta página pero recuerda siempre
mencionar nuestro link si compartes algo de tu interés.
