Lahore Zoo has no money to feed animals

Animals in the Lahore Zoo are suffering as the food contractors’ bills have not been paid for one and a half months now. Sources claimed that it was unclear as to why the situation arose as the zoo had always been making profits.
While the zoo authorities seemed to be disinterested in resolving the issue even after over a month, Zoo Veterinarian Dr Saman Bhatti said they were told that the funds had finished.
The zoo veterinarian said, “There should not be such an issue because the zoo has money in its own accounts.” She said: “At most there can been an issue in the release of funds but that too is not a big problem either. We have been hearing since April that the Zoo is running losses, my question is why were those losses not covered somehow?”
She said that though the bills would probably be paid in a day or two as the budget funds would be released and allocated, irresponsibility on the part of the zoo administration had been troublesome for the animals. “The zoo purchases 22 litres of milk, 110 kg of meat and 12 kg of offals for animals daily. Several times we had to buy meat for them out of our own pocket so they do not starve,” she said. “The contractors who supply milk and meat have refused to give us any more till their dues are paid.”
Defending himself and the zoo authorities, Wildlife Department Deputy Director Naeem Bhatti said: “No one handles the zoo accounts personally,” and that the bill-file had been passed and the bills would be paid by Tuesday (today).
The deputy director said, “There is a procedure to this and if, for instance, a usual bill of Rs 300,000 rises to Rs 800,000, the authorities will of course investigate the reasons behind it before releasing funds and this may cause delays in payments.” He said the bills for May were investigated and after clarifying matters with the Zoo Management, the file was cleared and released and now the cheques for the bills would be delivered in a couple of days.
Bhatti said that to avoid such a situation in the future, the Zoo Management must tell the budget expenses to the department in advance.
PU adopts tigers Sam and Mohni: In a ceremony held at the Lahore Zoo, Punjab University (PU) Department of Zoology adopted two tigers, Sam and Mohni, for a year on Tuesday.
PU Vice Chancellor Dr Mujahid Kamran was the chief guest while PU Registrar Prof Dr Muhammad Akhter, PUCAD Principal Prof Dr Rahat Naveed Masood, Director External Linkages Maria Maldonodo, RO-1 Javed Sami, Director General Wildlife and Parks Dr Zafar Nasrullah and Director Lahore Zoo Dr Zahid Iqbal Bhatti were present on the occasion. The PU VC said that adopting animals promoted human sentiments among the people; looking after animals could help eliminate torture from the society. He said that the university would try to create an endowment fund for saving tigers. He said that if the expected HEC grant continued, the varsity would prolong this project. PU Registrar Dr Muhammad Akhter said that it would provide an opportunity to Zoology students to do research on animals. He said that the varsity would spend Rs 1.214 million for annual expenditures of these tigers. Wildlife and Parks DG Dr Zafar said this joint venture would help these animals. He said common people would also benefit from these researches, as it would make animals live a better life and continue giving a chance to the people for enjoying nature. Lahore Zoo Director Dr Zahid Iqbal Bhatti thanked the PU and said that the partnership would help get the scientific data. Later, PU VC along with faculty members gave away the cheque of Rs 1.214 million to the Lahore Zoo.