You're reading: Elephant, sponsored by Kyiv mayor, allegedly poisoned to death in city zoo

The biggest and most famous inhabitant of Kyiv’s zoo, an elephant named Boy, died on April 26, allegedly after being poisoned to death. Boy made news in life as the only elephant kept by the financially troubled municipal zoo. In 2008, Kyiv’s eccentric Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky said he personally pays $6,000 a month for the feeding and care of Boy. It was part of the mayor's campaign to urge Kyivans to help the zoo.

The mysterious circumstances of the death follow years of complaints by animal rights activists, who have repeatedly sought to call attention to the poor living conditions at the underfunded zoo. Five large inhabitants of the zoo have died in four months.

The 39-year-old Boy died in his enclosure after being poisoned, the zoo’s director said. "This morning at 10.45 he let out a terrible cry and fell. I have the conclusions of veterinarians … It was a poisoning," zoo director Svitlana Berzina told Reuters.

"It was a tragic and sudden death," Berzina said. "The animal was in stable condition and nothing indicated any trouble. It was an instantaneous death."

Boy, a 6 1/2 metric ton Asian elephant, arrived at the Kyiv zoo in the mid-1970s.

Berzina said there had been an earlier attempt to poison Boy in the 1990s. "On that occasion, we managed to save him," she said. The circumstances of this previous attempt to poison Boy were not clear.

Authorities were not drawing any conclusions.

“The reasons for his death will be the subject of an investigation by veterinarians and law enforcement bodies,” Maria Azoryan, a Kyiv city administration official, said.

Berzina said the preliminary reason for the elephant death was acute heart and lung deficiency. The zoo had called for help to prosecutors and independent experts to investigate, Berzina added.

Boy’s cage

Boy’s corpse remained covered by a tarpaulin inside his open enclosure on April 26. Zoo authorities said there would be an autopsy.

“We will know the cause of death after an autopsy is performed, but our preliminary version is that Boy was poisoned. We found boiled eggs in his cage, which were not in his menu. On Monday morning Boy was absolutely fine, while later he suddenly felt bad and died minutes later,” Berzina told the Kyiv Post.

Boy died on a day that the zoo was closed, which should make it easier for authorities to rule out visitors as the culprit. But Berzina hinted that fired ex-employees of the zoo might have had a hand to play in Boy’s fate. Berzina suggested that the poisoning could have been intentional, part of a plot to get her fired.

But animal rights activists say Berzina is trying to cover up her own mistakes and crimes.

“These accusations are just ridiculous,” said Sergiy Hrihoryiv, head of the Help Zoo activists’ organization. Fired from the zoo last year after publicly criticizing poor living conditions of animals, Hrihoryiv pointed the blame at Berzina.

“Last year, the administration cut Boy’s food, which caused him lose two tons. His living conditions were horrifying. The elephant spent winter in a tiny cage without proper cleaning and fresh air,” Hrihoryiv said. “I have confirmed information from zoo staff that Boy’s keepers changed a couple of times recently. People quit or were fired. Elephants are very conservative animals. In European zoos, keepers work with same elephants for decades, because a change in keeper is a huge stress for an elephant.”

Problems in Kyiv zoo started long before last year’s appointment of Berzina. In 2007, the Kyiv zoo was excluded from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria for six years because of a "gross violation of principles of ethics concerning the wellbeing of the animals, without the right of renewal for this period of time.”

The zoo’s administration claimed that Boy was overweight and needed to lose two tons of excess weight. According to them, the animal spent the winter not in his previous cage, but in better and bigger one. They did not comment on how often keepers were changed, however.

Veterinarians say it is too early to know the cause of death and the reason might be animal’s age.

“It is true that in wild nature elephants live up to 70 years,” said Oleksiy Lapsatnyov, director of a Kyiv veterinary clinic. “But that’s in wild nature and no zoo is able to provide similar living conditions. For example, elephants should walk 20-30 kilometers per day to stay healthy. Of course it is impossible in zoo, there is just no space.”

The elephant was the fifth animal to die at Kyiv’s zoo in the past four months.

Zebra Grant died on March 29. Tiger Ivan died in February. In prior months, bear Osya and giraffe Rami also perished.

In some cases, the deaths occurred under suspicious circumstances. For example, the zebra died after breaking his neck while supposedly running. The giraffe, meanwhile, broke his spine ligaments. Both are unlikely occurrences, according to animal rights activists.

Activists complain that they appealed to Ukraine’s government to investigate, but received no reply.

In 2008, in response to ongoing complaints about the poor conditions for zoo animals, Chernovetsky announced he was giving financial assistance to Boy as part of the “Sponsor An Animal” zoo campaign. The mayoral campaign was aimed at enticing Kyivans to pay for animal food to help out the zoo, which doesn’t get enough public financing.

Then Chernovetsky proudly announced that he pays Hr 48,634 every month to feed the animal, which eats up to 50 kilograms of food daily.

The sum is remarkable given that, in 2009, Chernovetsky declared only Hr 18,751 in his monthly salary. However, Chernovetsky is also a multi-millionaire former banker.

Nevertheless, the mayor set a good example for his deputies and aides to follow. Some are sponsoring crane bird, penguins, and porcupines.

There was no immediate comment from the mayor’s office on the death of Boy.

Svitlana Tuchynska can be reached at [email protected] Reuters news service also contributed to this report.