It is a wonder how Bandung Zoo, located on the island of Java in Indonesia, is still in business. The zoo gained infamy when Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group, a non-profit that fights illegal wildlife trafficking and for the living conditions of zoo animals in Indonesia, released a video where starving sun bears in a concrete pen are begging for food from visitors. Just seeing the sorry condition of these animals is enough to bring tears to your eyes. This is just one of Bandung Zoo’s many offenses against their captive animals. In May of 2016, Yani, the zoo’s 34-year-old captive Sumatran elephant, who had been unable to stand for over a week, died shedding tears with chains shackled to her feet. Prior to that, the zoo’s resident giraffe died unexpectedly. When an autopsy of his body was performed, 40 pounds of trash were discovered in his stomach. Animals in Bandung Zoo live in sad, filthy concrete pens with little to no enrichment.


This video shows the zoo’s sun bears standing on their hind legs, begging for food from visitors. They are visibly emaciated and in desperate pain.

Yet, the zoo is currently ranked number 75 on Trip Advisor’s list of things to do in the region — but why? Regardless of whether or not you are a big animal lover, to recommend that people visit a zoo where the animals are so neglected that they must turn to handouts of junk food from visitors is an act that is lacking in any common sense.

According to a report in The Sun, the carnivores only get fed when New Zealand sends over food parcels. While this is a heartfelt act, it is the responsibility of the zoo to ensure the best possible care for their animals — and if they cannot/will not manage that, then the animals should be sent to sanctuary homes.


How can Trip Advisor be so blind to the zoo’s captive animals whose suffering is so obvious that commenters are speaking out on their page? One commenter, FlyawayAZ, described his trip to the zoo: “Animals thin and in poor condition. In many cases they are in extremely small cages with no natural materials. Old, rusty cages… but most importantly was the sadness of the animals in small, cement pens.”

The best possible course of action that we can take is to put pressure on President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, and his Minister of Environment and Forestry, Siti Nurbaya Baka to shut down the zoo once and for all and to ensure that all its captive animals are given a fresh start at either a sanctuary or conservation center.



Lead image source: Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group/YouTube

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