Animal activists are urging Indonesia’s Bandung Zoo to close after shocking footage of skeletal-looking sun bears begging for food was shared online.
This horrific discovery comes after the zoo temporarily closed last year after a bruised Sumatran elephant died in the zoo’s captivity (according to the ABC, the elephant died as a result of “neglect”).
In the video clips, filmed by activists of non-government organisation Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group, the extremely thin sun bears can be seen begging visitors for food, with the visitors throwing junk food into their enclosure.
Not only that, but the enclosure itself is, as Scorpion’s program director Gunung Gea told the BBC, “dirty”, the water “polluted and unclean, and the floor has no grass”.
WARNING: some people may find the below footage distressing.
However, a spokesperson for the privately owned zoo claims that just because the bears are thin doesn’t mean that they’re not healthy.
“We provide enough food… People say they are thin, but does (that) mean they are not healthy and they are not eating? It’s no.”
As reported by the ABC, this isn’t the first time an Indonesian zoo has come under fire for animal cruelty. The Australian broadcaster reported that as many as 50 animals died in a three-month period at Surabaya Zoo in 2013. From this, the zoo was colloquially titled the “zoo of death”.
Sadly, in a Jakarta Globe report published in 2015, only four out of 58 registered zoos in Indonesia were considered to be “decent and appropriate”.
Animal activists have taken to Change.org in a bid to build up enough supporters to take the Bandung sun bear matter to Indonesian president, President Widodo, who they hope can intervene and shutdown the zoo.
They are only 24,000 off their 300,000 supporter target.
WATCH as one very thin bear begs zoo visitors for food – and see why activists are looking to shut this zoo down.
