By
Anishka Perera
My family and I have come from Australia for a holiday and we paid a visit to your zoo. From a tourist’spoint of view, I thought it was my duty to advise you to fix some major problems. I am writing this letter of complaint to express my grievance at the condition that the Dehiwala Zoo is in.
The first unpleasant surprise we encountered was the appalling amount of mice in each of the animal enclosures. My family and I seemed to agree on the fact that it seemed quite unhygienic and a health hazard to the animals and humans alike. I would be very grateful for the sake of the animals and the visitors, that you find a way to get rid of the rodents, preferably without killing them. A suggestion is that you spray the area with peppermint oil daily which would be a humane way of discouraging them. Peppermint oil is a natural deterrent and even mixing it with the animals’ food could prevent the rodents from visiting. Killing the mice will result in more rodents coming due to the availability of food.
The second situation which I was displeased with was a leopard who was howling pitifully. It appeared to be in agony and was pacing up and down in its cage. It had absolutely no water in its trough so it may have been dehydrated and it appeared to be straining to pass a stool. I would be thankful if you can have a veterinarian constantly at the zoo in case an animal is injured or ill. Organising your zoo keepers and labourers to wait at each section in case of emergency would be quite helpful too. It saddens me to think that no one alerted the veterinarian or even the zoo keepers to help the suffering feline.
My third issue is that some of the apes had absolutely no greenery and were in exceedingly small corrals. It was painful to watch such intelligent creatures be so unhappy. Apes have the brain capacity of a 3 year old child and are emotionally aware. Some of the apes in your zoo were by themselves in small, concrete cells. No animal deserves to experience such exclusion. I would appreciate it if you can add some shrubs and plants and a couple of toys in each cage, which can all be done inexpensively. I am very against the idea that some of these apes are on their own in their prisons. It would really put the sightseers’ mind at rest to know that these animals are happy and having companions.
My fourth concern is the cleanliness of the enclosures. The brown bears’ cage for example had a repulsive pile of food debris consisting of rice and other food stuffs. Another example is the swans’ enclosure. The water was a muddy brown moss green colour. Leaves and twigs littered the contaminated irrigate. It looked like it hadn’t been cleaned for months. I recommend you to give this some serious thought or watch the visitor numbers slowly drop.
In conclusion, I request you to please act upon it quickly as it is obvious to me that these animals aren’t happy, just as it will become obvious to other people.
(Anishka Perera is a 14 year old Australian resident of Sri Lankan Origin)