Who’s responsible for lion cubs’ death?

Although the inquiry into mysterious death of three lion cubs at Karachi zoo has been completed, the zoo administration officials suspended were made scapegoats only to save certain high-ups and influential personalities involved in the incident, Pakistan Today has learnt. The question still persisting is that who actually was responsible for the death of newborn lions as several controversial points have not been resolved and the issue is being diverted towards the lower staff. Last year in December, two lion pairs were seized by customs at the Karachi airport on being imported on an expired permit by an animal trader. The lions were handed over to the Sindh Wildlife Department (SWD) that shifted the animals to the Karachi zoo citing lack of housing facility. Sources in the zoo administration told Pakistan Today that the Karachi zoo management initially refused to undertake the responsibility as the SWD did not have a good track record in fulfilling the zoo’s agreements.
“But on the orders of city government’s Community Development Department (CDD) executive district officer (EDO), the lions were shifted to the Karachi zoo on December 22, 2010. He directed the zoo administration to not refuse the SWD and keep the two pairs of lions in custody,” the sources added. “On the EDO’s order, the zoo administration accepted the lions only for seven days. The conditions were settled ‘in writing’ that the Karachi zoo will provide the enclosure to accommodate lions only for seven days and will not be responsible for any health issues and the owner will not put any responsibility upon the zoo administration.
The zoo administration then wrote letter number ADDL/6540/10 to the authorities concerned and informed them about the issue. “The seven-day period will be completing on 28/12/2010 and no decision has been taken by the SWD regarding the future of the lions,” it was stated in the letter. The sources claimed that housing facilities for lions were only provided on Community Development EDO’s orders and why did he not take any action on the letter should be investigated. “CDD EDO and SWD officials are responsible for the death of the lion cubs and should be included in the inquiry,” the zoo department official said. “The inquiry committee has put the blame on juniors only to save the high-ups and the influentials directly involved in the smuggling of animals.”
According to the agreement with SWD, the zoo administration was not to be held responsible for the health of lions. Another clause was that the food for lions will be provided by the SWD. “The inquiry was conducted only against some zoo officers and not a single person from CDD or SWD was included in the investigation circle, making the probe biased.” The sources alleged that some political figures are involved in smuggling of animals and CDD officers are close relatives of the said persons. “The zoo administration officials were targeted and suspended to hush up the issue and to save the influential.”