I had planned to use my opportunity for extended time at home over this Holiday to finish many posts. Who knows if I would have been productive by now, but I have certainly been disabled by the tragedy at Krefeld Zoo since the moment I heard about it.
For those who don't know, the Monkey House at Krefeld Zoo in Germany, fell victim to a fire in the early hours of New Years Day.
It was 11:40p here and I was trying to stay awake to see in our new decade. Thinking of things I needed to accomplish, and of how surreal the year 2020 sounds. Then I read the news. First reports that all Residents of the Monkey House had perished. My insides immediately felt heavy and tears started flowing. The same feeling would have overtook me had there been a single Soul lost, but the final number of lives lost, is now Thirty. Thankfully there were two survivors.
The two Chimpanzees who survived this horror, lost their friend. Probably watched as he was either burnt alive or succumbed to smoke inhalation. The family of five Orangutans, included an infant, whose Mother was probably trying to comfort and save her babie. Two Gorilla's, who lived through being taken from their wild families decades ago, only to die this way. These are just the Great Apes who lost their Lives. Dozens of other poor Souls, spent their final moments in fear, trapped in cages, not being able to escape. The images that I've created in my mind of all these precious Beings desperation to stay alive, has been hard to shake.
As the minutes ticked on, I read that the possible cause was Fireworks. It was now midnight and several backyards over from my Richmond District home, I can hear, illegal Fireworks being set-off, and see bursts of light from them. I was so enraged, as I am every July 4th and every New Years Eve that this happens. I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade, but they are illegal for a reason. They are a potential hazard. In that moment the audacity was too much. For many reasons I am sick of people. I'm sick of the self-entitled. People who do whatever they want, with no regard for those around them. This is another example of that mentality. The City of San Francisco puts on a display at the waterfront. Go there. I mean seriously people don't even have the sense to do this shit at the beach, if they want to be reckless. ... It has been confirmed that Sky Lanterns, illegal in Germany were the cause.
It has also been reported that the Monkey House structure had no Sprinkler System. It has not been reported Why. It has not been reported whether not having them went against any EAZA accreditation guidelines, or government ordinances. I do not know for fact, but would hope our AZA has a guideline for that. It would seem, any space where there are lives that are confined, should at least have some sort of emergency help system.
There has been no comment by the EAZA. The WAZA posted condolences to their Facebook page. In a search, only one other Zoo (in the world?) posted condolences. I hope there were others, because its shameful that a community would not have any caring words for their peers and what has befallen on them.
Lastly I want to include two other tragedies. Admittedly, I sometimes tend to shut out reading about sad things, because there is so much of it, and sometimes I just can't. After seeing a sad video, I read only one article about the tragedy last month at African Safari Wildlife Park in Ohio, who had ten of their Residents perish in a barn fire. I have also, until the last couple days, passed up most of the sad photos of victims from the tragic situation that continues in Australia, where it is now reported that over 500 million Animal lives has been lost. It being 2020 isn't nearly as surreal as that number of Wildlife lost.
All documentation of these events are heartbreaking and horrific. I can't imagine how people are dealing with seeing this first hand, especially those who cared for and knew the captive Animals affected. To all of them, I am sorry for your loss. It is heartbreaking from a afar, it would be unbearable to be close to.
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