Jakarta Globe – AFP, Sep 02, 2014
Jakarta. An
emaciated Sumatran tiger, whose plight highlighted horrific conditions at an
Indonesian zoo, has died a year after being rescued from the center where
hundreds of animals have perished, an official said on Tuesday.
Pictures of
painfully thin tigress Melani in an overgrown enclosure, with her fur matted
and dull, caused shock when they were published last year and increased calls
for action to be taken against Surabaya zoo.
It has been
dubbed the “death zoo” as so many animals have died there prematurely in recent
years owning to neglect, including several orangutans, a tiger and a giraffe.
After the
pictures of Melani were published and officials warned the critically
endangered tiger was on the brink of death, she was taken from the zoo to a
safari park south of the capital Jakarta in July last year.
She was
suffering from a serious digestive disorder after being fed tainted meat at the
zoo on the main island of Java.
The
16-year-old was placed in a special enclosure with a vet assigned to care for
her.
But more
than a year of specialist care was not enough to save her, and she died in her
sleep last month, Tony Sumampau, chief of Indonesia’s zoo association, told
AFP.
The zoo
association originally wanted to put her down in September last year but they
changed their minds after a protest by activists.
“But she
was truly suffering. You could see it in her face. … It was pitiful,” Sumampau
said.
There are
estimated to be only several hundred Sumatran tigers left in the wild.
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