The Beijing Zoo is a Dump

Q: What's more depressing than the Beijing Zoo?
A: The Beijing Zoo when its raining!

Oh it feels so good to laugh again! I'm sure the poor animals could go for a laugh right about now, but unfortunately they're too busy fastening nooses out of bamboo grass or whatever the hell the zoo keepers feed them. In all seriousness though, the Beijing Zoo is really one of the most depressing places to go, and clearly didn't receive any of the funding the government doled out to the city to fix it up for the Olympics. I have been to the zoo twice now since getting to China (once in the rain, and the other time as a field trip with my kindergarten class), and each time I leave feeling like shit. How can the management of that place walk through the compound everyday, see all these depressed animals sitting in their old filth, and not even consider spending a bit of money to fix the place up?

Something else that has really bothered me each time I went to the zoo was the way people treated the animals. For instance, I was watching a big majestic Lion in his 10x10 cage (appropriate room dimensions for an animal that typically roams vast plains), when all of a sudden a Chinese guy walks up to the cage and starts clapping and screaming and growling at the animal, trying to get a reaction. Soon a few other Chinese men walked over and started screaming at the Lion, which looked like it just wanted someone to shoot it out of its misery. The zoo security guard just watched the whole thing and did nothing to stop it. I thought back to the Tiger attack that happened last summer, where a Siberian Tiger escaped from her cage and killed one person before getting killed herself. Now I know its tragic that someone was killed, but after seeing all the abuse these animals get, it's no wonder the tiger snapped. I'm sure she's considered a martyr amongst the animal community, someone who finally stood up against all the douches who harass them day in and day out. I would be lying if I told you I didn't want that poor Lion to escape from his cage...

Something else that really bothered me was the blatant disregard for the signs posted throughout the zoo. Is the vast majority of Chinese illiterate, or do they simply not care about signs asking people not to feed the animals, or not to touch the animals? Take a look at the photos to the right- you'll clearly see a sign that says "Do Not Touch," and then a picture of a man clearly touching said animal. If my damn Nokia wasn't so slow, you would have seen that man lift the poor sea turtle's fin out of the water and hold it there for a photo. Once again, the security did nothing to stop this.

I was pretty excited to see the new aquarium, since it is listed as the world's "largest inland aquarium." How did it stack up? Well... its definitely not as nice as the New England Aquarium, and the price tag was a bit high (120 RMB, as opposed to the 20 RMB it costs to go to the zoo), and the highly hyped Whale exhibit actually doesn't house whales... but it actually wasn't that bad. At least the fish weren't all on suicide watch, right?

I guess the main point of this blog is, shame on the Chinese for letting these animals live in these conditions! If one of the prized Pandas is sleeping in his own shit, just imagine what the other animals have to put up with. I don't know whats going to happen here, but something really needs to be done to fix the place up.