JEDDAH — The Municipal Council has managed to stop the closure of the Beautiful Creatures Zoo after holding an urgent meeting with Jeddah Mayor Adel Fakieh on Monday.
“The mayor has apologized about the sudden closure and has issued an immediate order to stop the demolition of the part of the zoo on municipality land,” said Hussein Al-Bar, a member of the Municipal Council.
On Saturday, demolition began even though the council was still reviewing the decision to close the zoo. The zoo was going to be removed because of claims that it was disruptive to have a zoo inside a residential district, Al-Safa. Locals reportedly complained about the zoo’s presence.
But Al-Bar says that the reports are false and that the governor’s office has no record of complaints.
The council, he said, is preparing a recommendation report about the current situation of the zoo to prove that it does not bother or harm either the environment or the surrounding districts. “We are mostly going to recommend the continuation of the zoo in its current location with full scientific proof,” he said.
The municipality has started seizing the zoo’s location last Saturday, without waiting for the Municipal Council’s report, which is supposed to be completed in two weeks.
An anonymous source at the zoo told Arab News on Monday that animals have died since zoo workers had to scramble to relocate them on Saturday as the unexpected demolition began. Yesterday nobody from the zoo would speak to Arab News at the zoo and the gates were closed.
One operator said that some animals are being stored temporarily in portable cages.
Municipal workers were seen yesterday picking up the debris caused by Saturday’s interrupted demolition.
Tariq Fadaaq, president of the Municipal Council, said that the urgent meeting also discussed the situation of the old city dump, which is posing a huge pollution threat to the city.
He added that the council is currently preparing another report about the dangers of the old landfill and would send it to the minister of municipal and rural affairs for immediate action.
“The Municipal Council is not satisfied with the environmental situation in Jeddah, and therefore we are looking for urgent solutions so that we don’t pass on a polluted city to coming generations,” Fadaaq said.
