The mayor of the western city of Timisoara has ordered the closure of the city’s zoo after an image of a poorly looking deer was posted on social media, the latest incident at the underfunded and outdated zoo.
Mayor Dominic Fritz said the deer had since died and the zoo would shut and would reopen when it had been ‘modernized’ to 21st century standards.
No money has been invested in the facility since 2014 he said on Facebook.
„Unfortunately, the deer was no longer able to be saved. I made a small inquiry from which it resulted it wasn’t about his mistreatment or neglect but about a disease he had been suffering from for three weeks,” he wrote.
“Animals can no longer live in these habitats where no money has been invested since 2014. The unfit living conditions contribute to the deteriorating their health,” he wrote in English.
The incident came two months after dogs dug their way into the zoo and killed six kangaroos. An emu managed to escape.
The mayor said local authorities would contact the city’s twin cities which have modern zoos, such as Szeged in Hungary, Karlsruhe, in Germany and Mulhouse in eastern France, to request support in the project to bring the zoo to European standards.
“We will be working on a developmental concept that answers the question that is the goal of a zoo in the 21st century.”
„There is no way we can keep a zoo open for entertainment, a zoo with unfit conditions. Animal welfare must come first and the goal must be educational and conservation,” Dominic Fritz said.
