A zoo in Kharviv, Ukraine says it could need to to euthanize some animals after Russian shelling destroyed enclosures. Feldman Ecopark is attempting to relocate animals, but when that choice fails, some animals, like lions and tigers, should be put to sleep.
"Feldman Ecopark does not exist anymore," the zoo's founder Alexander Feldman stated in a video assertion. The zoo was subjected to a bombardment that mainly destroyed it, he stated within the video, which was posted on Fb.
Animal enclosures had been badly broken, and Feldman warned some animals may enter the streets. Whereas the bears had been in dangerous situation "by sheer miracle, tigers and lions are alive," he stated.
"In the present day we're deciding ... we now have time 'until night, whether or not to place all of them down or transport them some place else," Feldman stated. The zoo's staff was working in Chutovo, looking for a solution to save the animals, he stated. "Possibly we'll save child jaguars, child panthers, however all grownup animals will in all probability be liquidated," Feldman stated.
Within the caption of the video, the zoo stated its specialists had been contemplating the potential of equipping some animals with non permanent housing in Chutovo, within the Poltava area of Ukraine. "Failing that, the one choice left to us is to place the predators to sleep. It's unimaginably painful to speak about this, however the principle precedence now's the lives of individuals," the caption reads.
In one other assertion on the Feldman Ecopark web site, the zoo stated the lions practically ended up exterior the enclosure after a current spherical of shelling. "We emphasize that the euthanasia of animals is an excessive measure, which we very a lot hope is not going to come to," the assertion reads. "Now we're negotiating with numerous individuals and organizations, specifically, with those that can settle for our animals in Ukraine and overseas."
Nonetheless, there is a matter of the best way to transfer the massive animals. "Such an operation requires the presence of particular transport and the participation of a reasonably large variety of individuals. Which with a excessive diploma of likelihood will appeal to the eye of the enemy, who, as a rule, responds to exercise on the territory of the Ecopark with shelling," the assertion reads.
CBS Information has reached out to Feldman Ecopark for remark and is awaiting response.
On March 4, about two weeks after Russia started its invasion, the zoo stated employees had been in a position to go to chimpanzees and orangutans for the primary time because the warfare started. The monkeys had been sheltered by the Kharkov Zoo.
On Tuesday, the zoo was in a position to transfer Ukraine's solely household of tapirs – a herbivorous animal with a brief trunk – and another unique animals from Kharkiv. They're at a short lived residence within the Poltava area, in keeping with Reuters.