Although the matter is quite interesting, only after understanding the reason why Hongshan Zoo is open to adoption, can you know the sadness behind it.
The most popular zoo is so poor that it can’t be blamed?
The reason is very simple: there is no money.
Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo, this zoo that is regarded as the best in China by the industry, is it so poor that it can’t be blamed?
As the only public welfare zoo in China that is "self-profit and loss", more than 80% of Hongshan Zoo's income comes from tickets.
However, in recent years, due to the impact of the epidemic, the zoo has lost a large part of its income.
income has dropped sharply, but the animals still have to continue feeding. There are more than 260 rare animals from all over the world living here, and you can imagine how huge it is, which makes them unable to make ends meet.
As a last resort, in order to save himself, the zoo opened up animal adoption and started live broadcasts.
This is not the first time that Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo has become popular.
As early as 2020, the head of Hongshan Zoo, Shen Zhijun, gave a 30-minute speech. In his speech, he said:
"Some people say there will be retaliatory trips after the epidemic, but I have been waiting for more than three months, and not many people have come to take revenge on me."
Because of this sentence "seeking revenge", Shen Zhijun became a famous "Internet celebrity park director".
In the whole year of 2020, Hongshan Zoo lost more than 30 million yuan, accounting for 40% of its revenue in previous years.
At that time, Shen Zhijun struggled for a long time and decided to deduct his and his employees' performance for half a year first, and give priority to ensuring the lives of the animals. The consequence of
The result of deducting performance is that a large number of employees left the job. That year, more than 20 employees left the zoo. The employees who stayed behind
can be said to be "generating electricity for love".
At the end of October this year, the epidemic in Nanjing was in urgent need. I heard that the ban was going to be blocked. The keepers packed up their things overnight without saying a word and moved into the zoo to live in the zoo just to ensure that the animals could be fed normally and not let them go hungry.
Although they lacked staff and their work was harder than before, they still took good care of the animals. From the live broadcast, it can be seen that the relationship between the animals and the keepers is very good.
When the epidemic was the most difficult time, the ticket price of Hongshan Zoo was still 40 yuan, which lasted for 11 years.
Not only that, Hongshan Zoo is also the first zoo in China to cancel animal performances. In 2014, they canceled animal feeding.
Although they know that these are the biggest sources of income for the zoo besides tickets.
But Shen Zhijun once said: "If animals don't want to see people, then people won't see animals. The meaning of any life does not lie in being viewed by others.
Zoo is not a place to spend money to see animals, but a place to learn to see animals."
Here, first of all, it is the home of animals, and secondly, it is the zoo where people come here to study and be popularized by science.
Respect animals and protect the natural environment is the core concept of Hongshan.
At the same time, there is another zoo that is hotly discussed - Guangzhou Zoo .
Many tourists found that the animals here seem to have some "melancholy", while some animals have "steady behavior".
From this perspective, the animals are indeed a little pitiful.
Some people have begun to question whether there is animal abuse in the "Guangzhou Zoo".
But is there really a phenomenon of animal cruelty in this zoo that will make soup for chimpanzees?
Soon, the truth came out - it turned out that a considerable number of the animals in Guangzhou Zoo were rescued from circuses.
has been trained and abused for a long time in the circus, so it has serious stereotyped behavior.
It is not the zoo that harms animals, but
—a cruel animal performance.
How cruel is animal performance?
More than ten years ago, animal performance was a very common thing.
I believe many people have watched it, but they don’t know that these performances almost deprive the animals of their lives and freedom.
On the stage, black bears stand like humans and jump ropes:
How do they learn to stand?
The trainer will tie the iron chain tightly to the black bear's neck, making it impossible for them to sit down and lie down:
can only struggle to stand until a habit is formed:
During training, it will also face the slap and sticks that can be beaten at any time.
For this reason, they can only obey the instructions of the animal trainer so that they can barely get beaten and get some time to lie down and rest.
Because he was forced to stand for a long time, all his weight was pressed on his hind limbs and waist, which caused some bears to suffer from lumbar disc herniation and could only spend the rest of his life in pain.
On the stage, the tiger stood obediently in a row and made various instructions according to the trainer.
How can a beast like a tiger be so obedient?
Because in the audience, if you are disobedient, you will be beaten and beaten to the point of obedience.
They train day after day:
It was originally a beast of the king of the forest, imprisoned in a cage, allowing humans to ravage:
It roared and roared, but the human behind it pressed its head and dragged its tail despite its anger and despair...
Why don’t they resist? Because the teeth have long been smoothed out and even pulled out...
Even after training, the animals can only live in a small and closed cage, without any normal social and play time:
Even after eating and drinking water, they can only wait in the cage. If
is ranked behind, you will also face the situation where food and water are robbed and you can only be hungry and thirsty.
On the stage, the elephant skillfully used the brush in her nose to draw a lifelike oil painting.
But in order to learn these paintings, they must endure months of abuse before they can learn how to adapt to the brush that is forced into their noses, and learn to grab the brush, draw straight lines, and draw small trees...
(a tool for elephant painting)
As a group animal, when they were still like babies, they were forcibly taken away from their mothers, and they never saw their family and lost their mental support.
There is only a small shed waiting for them, so small that they can only stand, unable to eat or sleep for a week.
Elephant trainer will use hooks to thrust them hard on their flesh and beat them all over with sticks.
This process is just to make them completely surrender to the elephant trainer.
In addition to drawing, elephants also need to learn various performances, such as playing football, dancing, standing, and hunching people with their noses...
There is still a lot of training behind this. As long as you make a mistake, you will be hit hard by the iron hook in the hands of the elephant trainer.
Even in front of tourists, the elephant trainer will mercilessly exert violence on the elephant. In this process, not only can the sound of skin cracking, but the elephant's painful screams can be heard. ......
And the iron hook in their hands looks like this:
"Elephant trainers only use them as tools to make money. In order to make the most money in the shortest time, I have seen many like they are tortured to death."
(scarred elephant)
Just as CCTV News said, the tiger that should be majestic is like a sick cat, the fat and strong black bear is sick all over, and the elephant that should have anger can make the earth shake and the mountain shake is tortured to the point of being torn...
Such abusive animal performance is heartbreaking.
The more exciting it is in front of the station, the more cruel it is behind the station.
This is why in July 2010, the State Forestry Administration issued a notice on "Further Standardizing Wildlife Viewing and Exhibition Behavior", requiring the immediate suspension of zero-distance contact and abused performances between wild animals and audiences.
In October of the same year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the " Opinions on Further Strengthening Zoo Management ", requiring zoos and parks in various places to immediately stop all animal performance projects.
In July 2013, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the "National Zoo Development Outline", which clearly proposed to eliminate all kinds of animal performances in zoos.
And zoos across the country have also gradually begun to reject and ban abused performances under the call of the country.
"The zoo is the place where life and life are dialogued."
Shen Zhijun once wrote this sentence in an article.
Today's Hongshan is known as the "zoo with the best animal welfare treatment" and has also achieved a gorgeous turn from a traditional zoo to a modern zoo. Behind the successful transformation of
is Shen Zhijun and his team's persistence and exploration for more than ten years.
A long time ago, zoos were a place for people to watch animals. Nowadays, as the concept and awareness of animal protection continue to deepen, the meaning of zoos is constantly changing.
Here is the home of animals, they are the "masters" and humans are the "guests".
Here is also a place where humans are popularized and knowledge of animals and nature is broadened.
Here, life is equal.
However, we are far from doing enough about animal protection.
To this day, there are still some places that still trap animals in cages and continue animal performances;
There are still some people who still believe that humans are above animals and nature;
Of course, there are also some people who are using their weak power to protect the animals with all their strength.
In Enshi Prefecture, Hubei, there is a "the loneliest zoo in the world" - Phoenix Mountain Forest Zoo.
A venue larger than the basketball court, the "old, weak, sick and disabled" animals, the ticket price of 10 yuan is the 82-year-old Luo Yingjiu, who has protected the zoo for half his life.
And the animals here have no novel species, some are weak and sick, and some are old, such as black bears with a missing forefoot, and monkeys who are blinded by the flash of tourists' cameras. There are even pork and stray cats and dogs.
Most of them were rescued by Grandpa Luo from the market and the zoo...
Grandpa Luo is a buyer, porter, cleaner, ticket seller, veterinarian at the zoo, a tour guide, and a mourner... He is like a master, taking good care of the life of every animal here.
Even though this consumed most of his life's savings and pension, even if it was difficult to operate, he refused to sell the animals no matter how many times he was asked:
"As long as I live for a day, animals will eat in one bite."
Perhaps for some people, Grandpa Luo's zoo is very dilapidated and has no so-called "highlights", but here is full of precious warmth between people and animals.
Someone will ask, since animals are to be protected, why should there be a zoo? Isn’t it better to release animals into nature?
In fact, modern zoos are constantly changing, not only a window for humans to understand and understand animals at a close distance, but also very important for preserving species and animal protection.
Many endangered animals are no longer suitable for their survival in the wild, and zoo professionals will help these animals reproduce and survive. There are also some animals that have been rescued have lost their ability to survive in the wild, and the zoo ensures their survival.
With the continuous improvement of facilities and equipment and the improvement of feeding management level, modern zoos have a greater mission than early zoos. The species are still there, and hope is there, and species diversity can continue. This is one of the significance of the existence of zoos.
We may not be able to devote our lives to animals like Grandpa Luo. But for ordinary people, the simplest thing we can do is to buy tickets to support these zoos that protect animals and respect animals.
Grandpa Luo said: "Animals survive in the world, and we humans need to protect them from starving them. It is a long process to get along with them with meat, bananas, apples...."
Shen Zhijun said: "This is a road that has no end. If we keep going, we are always on the road. I believe we will do better and better."
Animal protection is included in the rules, which is also what we have always supported and looked forward to.
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