The Beijing Zoo: A Tour of Animal Depression

As I mentioned in my prior post, I went to the zoo today.  Nothing could have prepared me for the horror that I would face.  To say that the Beijing Zoo was a disappointment would a be a huge understatement.  A disappointing zoo is one with fewer animals than you expect, or maybe a lot of the attractions are closed.  That's not the Beijing Zoo.  The Beijing Zoo is, without a doubt, the single ugliest, dirtiest, most poorly managed zoo I have ever seen.  Everything appeared to have been constructed in the 1970s, and then completely forgotten.  I am not a veterinarian, I am not a zoo aficionado, but I am a human being, and I know what cruelty is.  Nobody would accuse me of being sentimental, I'm the hard-hearted one in my family, but the conditions imposed on the animals in this zoo were profoundly disturbing.  From the lack of mental stimulation, to the squalid conditions of the enclosures, it was a disgrace.  This zoo should be shut down, and the animals given to people that can actually care for them.  I never once saw an animal caretaker in my time there, nor did I see anyone correct the guests on their numerous transgressions.  The cages were so poorly designed as to almost encourage people to throw food, trash, even stones into the enclosures and even at the animals themselves.  They were even taking flash pictures of the mammals in the NOCTURNAL exhibit.  Nocturnal means they sleep during the day!  This is not only the fault of the guests themselves, but also the management of the zoo, who seemingly could not be bothered to protect the animals with which they are entrusted.  Were such lax oversight and poor design applied to American or European zoos, people would no doubt do the same thing.  I was there for an hour and a half, but it felt like four, so physically and emotionally draining it was.  At some point, I consciously acknowledged that I was not having fun, and was only remaining in the zoo so I could document what I saw, and encourage others to avoid it at all cost.  If you don't believe me, please look at the pictures below.

This adorable little guy is a Rhesus Macaque.  He is surrounded by the kind of vegetables and  other food that finds it s way into his cage thanks to the unsupervised guests.

Pretty sad to think he'll grow up and live in the same conditions.

An adorable Fennec Fox.  The patrons kept disturbing his sleep by banging on the glass and whistling at him.

This White-tailed Eagle was stuck in a cage that wouldn't fit a good sized parrot.

These beautiful Maned Wolves are like nothing I've ever seen.  They look like a fox perched on a deer's legs.  There enclosure is what I came to expect. dirt, dirt, and maybe some hills made of dirt.

This masked palm civet was lounging around.  His environment was actually pretty good, minus the people banging on his glass.

It's spelled Hedgehog, guys.

A beautiful polluted day at the lake

This is what passes for a bear enclosure...

Notice my perfect vantage point to throw trash, food, or whatever I want onto this bear's head.   Who designed this place, and had they ever been to a zoo before?!?!?

This was an awful Polar Bear viewing area.  It was tiny, crowded, and it looked terrible.  The bears had shallow water, so swimming was not much of an option, and you couldn't see them underwater.  Not to mention that slippery slanted surface.  It's great if you want to laugh at a bear as it slides uncontrollably into the water, but does that sound fun for the bear?

This gorgeous Black Panther had nothing to do other than pace in his tiny cage.  It was painful to watch.

It's difficult to see, but this is the elephant's area.  You can see it on the left, taking up roughly a third of the cage.  It is one of the smartest creatures on Earth, but it has no mental stimulation, not even a ball.  It's just a bare metal cage with a dirt floor.  This was sickening.

Another elephant, this time in a larger cage, but still nothing to do but pace.

People, like this woman, would literally carry bags of vegetables to throw to the animals.  This is in spite of the sign featured below, which is less than five feet from her...

People suck...

The rhinoceros enclosure was as bad, if not worse than the elephants, if only because he was open to the loud noises coming from the crowd as they echoed off his bare concrete home.

Why is this baboon surrounded by trash, and eating what appears to be a condiment packet?!?!?!?!

Why?!?!?!

The chimps and gorillas were perhaps the saddest.  They had nothing but a faded  painting of vegetation to look at, and the near constant banging on the glass by children and adults alike.

The otter's enclosure.  You might have noticed that something is missing.  Oh, yeah, IT'S WATER!  THE OTTERS HAVE NO WATER!

Oh, look, a dirty alley with rubble at the end of it.  How scenic...

In a similar vein, where is the water in this alligator's enclosure?!  There was barely enough to keep the handful of small fish in there alive!

I almost left without seeing the pandas, so convinced was I that it would just be another upsetting experience.  I wasn't far off the mark.  The three pandas that they have are treated to much better living conditions than the other animals, and given a relatively large area in which to roam.  

Despite the better conditions, it certainly didn't seem up to the standards of a national symbol.  It would be like keeping a bald eagle in a dirty cage.

I have to acknowledge that I did not visit at the the best time of the year, or even in the best weather.  It was definitely hazier than normal.  Even so, I can't imagine that sunlight would make anything less rusty, or make the cages bigger, or keep the idiots from banging on the glass and pouring coke into the bear's mouth (that's not a joke...).  Just trust me, if you ever come here, just don't go to the zoo.  Beijing has a great deal to offer, but this isn't part of that.  I was struck as I walked home by the amazing dichotomy of this city.  I was in a foul mood, already mentally writing and editing the diatribe you just read, when I came upon an old man playing a traditional Chinese string instrument in one of the tunnels used to cross under the street.  I threw some money into his hat, and then I leaned against the wall for a bit, just appreciating the music.  That seems to encapsulate my relationship with this city: sometimes I get the zoo, sometimes I get the music.  It's the not knowing which it will be that makes this city so interesting.