March 12, 2010 (AP) – Eleven rare Siberian tigers kept in small cages and fed only chicken bones have died of malnutrition at a cash-strapped zoo in China’s frigid north-east, state media have said. A manager at the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo in Liaoning province, however, said the animals had died of disease. Siberian tigers are one of the world’s rarest species, with just 300 believed remaining in the wild. Liu Xiaoqiang, vice-chief of the Shenyang Wild Animal Protection Station, a local animal protection agency, was quoted by the China Daily as saying 11 of the zoo’s tigers died of malnutrition in the last three months after subsisting on a meagre diet of chicken bones. Two others were shot dead by police in November after the hungry animals attacked a zookeeper, the report said. The Liaoshen Evening Post, a local Shenyang newspaper, reported on its website that the company that owns the zoo was trying unsuccessfully to auction the zoo property, and many staffers complained they hadn’t been paid in 18 months. Wu Xi, one of the managers of the Shenyang Forest Wild Animal Zoo Co Ltd, told The Associated Press that “various kinds of diseases” had killed 11 tigers at the zoo over the past three months. Wu said the animals were kept in iron crates indoors because it was an unusually cold winter and the zoo had no heating. He refused to specify what diseases the animals had or respond to allegations they starved to death. …
Tiger tragedy: 11 starve to death at zoo
