The country’s poor economy, triggered by a drop in the price of oil and terrible economic policies , has led people as well as zoos animals “to go hungry”.
When a nation is plagued by hard times, people aren’t the only ones to suffer.
About 50 animals at Venezuela’s Caricuao Zoo have starved in the last six months due to the rising cost of food, caused by the nation’s economic downturn. Rabbits, tapirs, porcupines, pigs, and birds are among the fallen at the country’s zoos. Some went without food for weeks.
The National Parks Institute (INPARQUES), which oversees the country’s zoos, blames the shortages on the nation’s economic crash, caused by a plummet in the price of oil (Venezuela is a major oil producer). The country can’t afford to import food, medicine, and other necessities, and inflation has caused prices to skyrocket.
A union leader for employees in the state parks, Marlene Sifontes, told Reuters news agency some had spent two weeks without food before they died.
She said lions and tigers in the zoo in Caracas were fed mango and pumpkin to make up their meat rations.
Government officials have denied the deaths were due to a lack of food.
In other cities zoos are reported to be in a worse situation, forced to ask for donations of fruit, vegetables and meat from local businesses.
Zoo administrators in the andean state of Táchira have asked local businesses to donate fruit, vegetables, and meat to feed the animals. In May 2016, three animals died at a zoo in the Paraguaná Peninsula, in northwestern Venezuela. Staff are now attempting to move 12 animals more than 420 miles (676 kilometers) south to a park in Mérida.
As of this writing, no international animal rights organizations haveas set a position against this situation
All animals in the country, bipedal or not, are suffering. And Venezuela isn’t the only place where animals have been hurt by a poor social climate.
Months ago, visitors to Caricuao Zoo in Caracas, stole a horse and butchered it for meat. Meanwhile, many Venezuelans go without food on a daily basis and wait in supermarket lines for hours. The nation’s starving economy has driven people to hunt dogs, cats, flamingos and pigeons for food.
Gustavo Carrasquel | ANCA24
ANCA24 Canada 