Zoo abused

The Malay Mail 28/12/2007 (Friday) By DARSHINI KANDASAMY

Many blatantly disregard the warning signs and barriers placed by zoo authorities to prevent them from approaching certain cages, harassing the animals or throwing stones and rubbish into the enclosures.

“OUR cats look as if they can reach you!”

This sentence on the Zoo Negara website describes the natural realism of Cat Walk, the area which houses tigers, lions, leopards and pumas.

And the sentence is now lent a degree of irony following the near mauling of five-year-old Haw Qian Tong on Saturday.

The girl was alleged to have been clawed by a big cat while standing near an enclosure. However, it appears that zoo visitors have yet to learn their lesson.

A visit by The Malay Mail yesterday showed that despite the incident, some visitors are still risking their safety.

Many were seen blatantly disregarding the many warning signs and barriers placed by zoo authorities to prevent them from approaching certain cages, harassing the animals or from throwing stones and rubbish into the enclosures.

A few children and adults were spotted prodding the fence around Manja, the spotted leopards’s enclosure, with sticks or worse, their hands, for that great photo opportunity.

Various pieces of rubbish were also seen in other enclosures.

A family was seen reaching into a cage to try to touch a large tortoise and feed it with dried leaves. One child even climbed the railing to try and kick the tortoise.

As the reporter was talking to a staff manning the Reptile House, a group of young people could be seen leaning over the bars of the false gharial enclosure to pick several large sticks and leaves before throwing them at the reptile.

“Every day, there are people disturbing the animals in the Reptile House,” the staff said.

However, he said that many perpetrators usually stop after being warned by staff.

Those who refuse to listen would be taken to the supervisor. However, contrary to recent newspaper reports in which National Zoo director Dr Mohamad Ngah had assured that exhibits such as the lion, leopard and tiger enclosures were monitored by a supervisor at all times, The Malay Mail only spotted three zoo staff during the visit.

One was minding the Reptile House and the other two were inspecting Manja before leaving the vicinity.

Dr Mohamad, when contacted yesterday, said he was referring to weekends.

“We have four people stationed at the big cats area; one supervisor and three staff. But we increase manpower during weekends,” he said. Fewer visitors aside, Dr Mohamad added that staff follow rosters and some may be on leave.

“We have 120 staff, of which 80 work in a zoological capacity in which they deal with the animals. We cannot have all our staff work seven days a week as that would go against labour laws.” When pressed, he likened the situation to a road.

“On the roads, if the speed limit was set at 90 kph, the public is expected to follow the limits. You cannot expect the government to station a policeman at every kilometre.”

He said similarly, one cannot expect him to station staff at every exhibit each day although he is planning to increase the number of trained volunteers on duty from 26 to 50.

The director also stressed that he wanted to set the record straight on allegations that he was lying over the attack on Qian Tong. One of the cats had clawed Qian Tong through its fencing before pulling her towards itself.

The girl was only released when her father rushed at the animal.

The child sustained scratches on her back, neck and mouth.

The zoo claimed the animal was Manja the spotted leopard, and that the child had crossed the buffer and cable barrier around Manja’s enclosure.

However, on Wednesday, Qian Tong’s parents alleged that the animal was a puma and that the feline mix-up was the zoo’s attempt at misleading the public and point the blame at the family.

Dr Mohamad also refuted a report in a Malay daily which quoted him as stating that the girl’s injuries were not the result of claw marks but from her falling upon seeing the leopard lunging at her when she was attempting to scale the leopard enclosure.

“I did not make that statement. I was not even there when the incident occurred. It occurred when the staff were changing shift. No one was around to witness the attack.

“None of the information given to the public came from me but from the mother. When she brought her daughter to our office to report the attack, she used the Chinese term for ‘spotted leopard’ when talking to my Chinese customer service staff,” he explained.

He also said that he had believed it possible when told by staff it was the spotted leopard as the animal was more likely to approach the child as compared to the elusive puma.

“I did not even know about the puma until Wednesday.

“I did not intentionally mislead anyone. My job is to bring people to the zoo and such untrue reports will affect that.”