JEDDAH — A source working at the Beautiful Creatures Zoo said that the partial demolition of the zoo on Saturday caused a number of animals to die.
A person who answered the phone at the zoo, who spoke with a Yemeni accent but did not want to provide his name, said that municipal workers arrived on Saturday to begin razing zoo structures on the portion of the land owned by the government, but that the animals had not been moved.
Apparently there was some misunderstanding, with the municipality having given a Saturday deadline for the demolition work while, at the same time, the Municipal Council was reportedly reviewing a petition to stop the demolition. The council was holding an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss why the closure of the zoo was moving forward even as the council was supposed to issue its own report on the decision to close the zoo, which is privately owned but partially built on government land.
Arab News could not reach the manager of the zoo, but the receptionist said that some animals died during the demolition, while some perished after being crammed with the rest of the animals at the other side of the zoo.
Ahmad Al-Ghamdi, head of the municipality’s media department, said the zoo’s owner had been served a letter last week to evacuate the zoo by last Wednesday.
The letter, he said, made it clear that the municipality’s constructors would come to dismantle the site on Saturday. He said that the governor of Makkah Region has given orders to close the zoo and stop issuing any license for it unless it relocates to a location that is away from residential areas.
Hussein Al-Bar, member of the Municipal Council, told Arab News earlier that the municipality attempted the evacuation, without waiting for the report. The council held an urgent meeting yesterday which was still on up till the time this report went to the press.
Al-Bar said that according to the regulations of the Municipal Council, if a case were referred to the council’s intervention, the municipality would cease its action until the issuance of the council’s recommendations. This time, he said, the municipality did not wait for the council’s report.
According to a report in Sunday’s edition of the Okaz newspaper, an official study was made by King Abdul Aziz University, which revealed that the zoo does not pose any harm, hygienic or environmental hazards in its current location.
