Animals often victims in human conflicts

Moe Milstein
Vancouver Sun

Monday, October 31, 2005

In the peculiar human madness we call war, it is the innocents, among them the animals, that suffer the most dire consequences. In Afghanistan, in Kuwait, and most recently in Baghdad, the zoos, once the pride of their cities, were among the first victims of the recent conflicts. Animals that were not direct casualties of the fighting became prey for looters who either ate them or sold them to collectors. It seems strange that in the midst of chaos, a market for such things can exist.

In Baghdad, El Zawra Zoo had the added misfortune of being the site of a pitched battle between Saddam's Revolutionary Guard and the U.S. army. Very few animals survived. Nevertheless, in all these places, the zoos' workers either stayed with their charges in the midst of the fighting, as in Kabul, or returned as soon as possible to save what they could.

One such worker is Dr. Farah Murrani, the assistant director of the Baghdad Zoo. But Murrani, a 1999 graduate of the Baghdad University College of Veterinary Medicine, is not actually in Baghdad anymore. Because her work brought her into close contact with the U.S. army, she earned the active disapproval of those opposed to the presence of the Americans. Last year, she began to receive disquieting signals that her life was in danger. As a result, U.S. army veterinarians in Iraq arranged contacts for her with zoological organizations in the U.S. She was invited to do an externship at the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro where she spent the last six months. When I caught up with her she was in Cape Town, South Africa, continuing her studies.

She told me that after the shooting stopped in 2003, only a dozen of the 600 animals were found to have survived in what was once the Middle East's largest zoo. Lions had escaped and bears were roaming the city. Other abandoned exotic animals were discovered, among them a group of lions and cheetahs that had been part of the private collections of Uday Hussein, and Saddam Hussein's herd of Arabian horses.

U.S. army units, fittingly including the cavalry, rounded up the strays and began a program to not only restore the zoo but to bring it up to international standards. Murrani is pleased with the new programs but not everyone shares her enthusiasm.

With the spread of post-invasion hostilities, the area has once again become too dangerous for its citizens. To some, it may seem that concern about animals is misplaced when such devastation continues to befall the human inhabitants of the area. But for people such as Murrani it is important to continue the work of compassion in the field to which they have dedicated their lives. And there are other benefits to restoring the zoo which extend beyond the animals themselves. As Stephan Bognar of WildAid says, "We see the zoo as a community, and that includes both the people and the animals."

Dr. Moe Milstein runs the Blueridge-Cove Animal Hospital in North Vancouver and can be contacted at blueridgevet@yahoo.com.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005