Premature animal deaths have transformed one of Kyiv’s most proud family venues into a sad place.
The Kyiv Zoo is a depressing place these days, with sick inhabitants, empty enclosures and endless scandals over the mysterious and premature deaths of several animals.
“It used to be the pride of Kyiv,” Yana Grushko, a Kyivan who brought her son and niece to the zoo the other day. “Now it’s pitiful.”
Another mother explained to her disappointed son: “There used to be an elephant here, but he died,” she said, in front of the empty elephant’s yard. A group of children stared inside another enclosure, hoping to catch a glimpse of a bear. “He probably died,” she said.
The death toll is mounting with at least eight large animal deaths since December, including an elephant, tiger, giraffe, camel, zebra, bear and armadillo. The latest victim, a female bison called Viya, died on May 30. According to the zoo administration, profit from entrance tickets dropped dramatically by Hr 1 million since the beginning of 2010 when animals began dying often.
Why are so many animals dying prematurely? Investigations are under way.
Zoo director Svitlana Berzina, who had claimed that her rivals are poisoning the animals in a bid to get her fired, has been temporarily suspended by Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky.
Boy and other victims
Scrutiny of the zoo intensified after Boy, the 39-year-old male elephant, died under disputed circumstances on May 26. Berzina claimed it was poisoned with eggs thrown into the cage. On June 3 the zoo issued a press release saying the autupsy discovered cyanide in the elephant’s internal organs.
But animal rights activists told www.crypo.com.ua, an investigative online newspaper that, in fact, the autopsy report said no poison was discovered, but did say internal organs were damaged indicating that the animal had poor care. Volodymyr Polishchuk, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry in Kyiv, also said in May that “No poison was found in the animal’s blood. Thus we cannot open a criminal case on animal slaughter.”
Some animal rights groups and former employees of the zoo were not surprised about the death, contending that the elephant was neglected and underfed for a long time. Oleksandr Nikolov, former elephant caretaker, told the zoo protection activist group on May 1 (www.helpzoo.kiev.ua) about the appalling conditions that the elephant had to endure in the last year. Last year, the elephant lived most of the winter in a 24-square meter enclosure with a wet floor because his winter enclosure was under reconstruction. He was poorly fed and his keepers changed often.
Ihor Dobrutskiy, deputy mayor of Kyiv, agreed that the elephant was neglected. “The new elephant shouldn’t be kept as Boy was,” Dobrutskiy said. The elephant is not likely to be replaced anytime soon.
More premature deaths seem a certainty, due to poor conditions.
The two giraffes are still kept in a tiny winter enclosure, with no fresh air and no space to move around. “Their summer yard is undergoing reconstruction,” their keeper explained.
The primates are living in small metal cages with bare floors, no trees or bushes, or any other elements from their native environments. The zoo administration said new enclosures are under construction, but there has been a delay in financing the construction.
People in charge
Many animal rights groups allege that the deaths and neglect of the zoo animals is a result of incompetence of the people in charge.
“We have analyzed people who work at the zoo with heads of the animal protection societies in Austria and Great Britain, Christian Janatsch and John Ruane, and we came to the conclusion that a majority of them are underqualified,” said Tamara Tarnavska, president of the Animal Protection Society of Ukraine. “Commonly, people employed by European zoos have to have decades of experience to qualify for the job. In Kyiv, some zoo employees have no experience of working with animals at all.”
Berzina’s qualifications to head the zoo are suspect, to say the least.
She became director in 2008. Before that, she was accused of organizing dog fights. Janatsch, the head of the Animal Protection Society of Austria, videotaped dog fights in Kyiv with a hidden camera and held a press conference in Kyiv. It caused an international scandal back in 2008. He has accused Berzina as being among the organizers of the event.
Other animal rights activists suggested that Berzina and her chief accountant had previous convictions of financial abuse – a charge that she has denied as well as that of organizing dog fights. But allegations of financial wrongdoings at the zoo persist.
Andriy Kapustin, a writer who heads the Expert Council civic organization, said in one of his recent publications that he found multiple discrepancies in financial reports of the city zoo. Berzina claims it must have been a typing error. “It is true that in the first version of financial report of 2009 the sum Hr 3 million was standing in front of “Juridical services and audit”, but that was the misprint and it changed at once,” claims Berzina.
According to her, since critical web page helpzoo.kiev.ua was launched zoo had 26 inspections from State Audit Administration (KRU) and other governmental bodies and they found no major violations.
However, problems in Kyiv zoo begun long before Berzina. The Kyiv zoo was expelled from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria in 2007 because of animal rights violations, including poor conditions for its animals. “Until 2008 alcohol was sold freely it the zoo, there were loud carousels which troubled animals. We cannot deny Berzina cancelled all that,” says zoologist, head of Kyiv ecological center Volodymyr Boreyko. According to him, back in 2007 around 300 animals perished in Kyiv zoo: “Zoo was the place of mess for years. And I think it will take years to clean it all up.”
Land issue
Some animal rights activists believe the deterioration of the zoo is a deliberate attempt to get it relocated closed down eventually, so that the 34.22 hectares of municipal land on a prime location can be used for other purposes.
“Let’s not forget the price of land parcels in Kyiv, especially close to the city centre where the zoo. We are talking millions of dollars,” Kapustin said. “I can assure you the plan to move the zoo out of Kyiv is alive and well. And now that the population of the zoo is gone, the city administration might argue there is no point for it to occupy such a big territory.”
Serhiy Hrihoryev, a former zoo administrator, claims there were many attempts to cut the territory of the zoo before. “If the zoo isn’t moved out of the city, it will most likely lose some of its territory. While I still worked at the zoo, there were attempts to sell out the unfinished vet clinic on the territory of zoo,” Hrihoryev said. “Then there were suggestions to rent a parcel to a private company for construction of a private dolphinarium. One very big company proposed to buy the zoo out and turn it into an entertainment center with animals occupying just a small area. I am sure all these initiatives are still on the table.”
Berzina says those allegations are absurd and the zoo has national status which protects it from any violations. Ihor Ivanenko, head of the State Reserves Department at the Nature Ministry of Ukraine, said on June 2 that his ministry will now work towards taking over the supervision of the zoo, currently under the jurisdiction of the municipal authorities.
Assuming allegations of an attempt to remove the zoo are true, the decision would have to be done at a very high level. Although zoo is under Kyiv city administration and its territory is owned by the city, the zoo has a status of national state institution and the decision to move or close would require presidential approval. “This just does not look like Chernovetsky style. If he would want to spare the land of the zoo he would rather buy a good land parcel outside Kyiv and make a big PR show out of it first, showing how good it would be for animals to live there. I do not exclude it this might happen soon, though.” says Boreyko.
Kyiv Post staff writer Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected]
