Manila Zoo will remain open as long as the city’s “Dirty Harry” is in charge.
During the zoo’s 52nd anniversary on Monday, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim made it clear that he would not stop acquiring more animals for the tourist attraction and neither would he shut it down despite an online petition being circulated by animal rights groups seeking its closure.
“While I am mayor of Manila, I will not have the Manila Zoo closed,” Lim said in a statement.
“I have already written to eight Southeast Asian ambassadors, asking them to donate to us… some animals [from] their countries,” Lim added in Filipino.
A petition launched by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other animal protection groups has criticized the “miserable conditions” in the zoo where “animals… are housed in cramped, barren cages that can’t compare to their natural habitats.”
The groups asked readers to join them in their call “in asking Mayor [Alfredo] Lim to halt plans to acquire more animals for the Manila Zoo. Instead, ask him to improve the lives of the animals already there or, better yet, to close the zoo altogether.”
Lim and parks and recreation chief and zoo director Deogracias “Deng” Manimbo, however, said the animals at the zoo were all bred in captivity and they would not survive in the wild should they be set free.
In an earlier interview, Manimbo also denied that the animals at the facility were being maltreated as he pointed out that the bulk of their P50–million annual budget went to their care.
Manimbo added that the zoo had hired the best veterinarians in the country and that all enclosures were being kept clean.
In fact, animals at the zoo even go beyond their life expectancy, he claimed.
On Monday, the zoo opened its newest attractions–a rehabilitated fish pond and a new multipurpose center. Lim gave plaques of appreciation to officials and representatives of donor groups such as Associated Ship Management Services Inc., Canon Marketing Phils. Inc. and Union Galva Steel Corp.
The Manila Zoological and Botanical Garden, or Manila Zoo, is the first zoo in Asia and the oldest and largest one in the country. It was established to provide an accessible source of entertainment and education to indigent children, Lim said.