JEDDAH: The car was speeding with us toward the Beautiful Creatures Zoo in north Jeddah before we came to realize that the zoo, which the residents of the Red Sea coastal city know quite well, is not the only zoo in town. So we began to look for any information that might prove to us the existence of another zoo. We obtained information that there was a zoo under the supervision of the Jeddah municipality. This meant that there were efforts being exerted by the municipality to provide more recreational spots for the residents. We were finally able to locate at Um Al-Salam area, Jeddah’s forgotten zoo.
Our journey toward Um Al-Salam, which was not known to either of the driver, the photographer or the reporter, began at 4 p.m. However, the photographer, Abdullah Al-Muwalid, was the only one among us who had a vague idea about the location of the place, so we appointed him our leader.
He took us on the Jeddah-Makkah expressway passing through a number of shantytowns. About a half-hour into our trip we saw a poster pointing to the headquarters of Um Al-Salam. We entered a slum area and began the search for the forgotten zoo amid unpaved roads filled with young boys playing football. We were exulted when suddenly we saw a green fence. Save for the one sign of birds on it, there were no other indications that there were in fact animals inside. It was silent. The main door to the zoo has long been shut. We had hope of finding an inlet when we saw a family looking for an entrance to the door. We circulated the periphery of the zoo.
Tired of trying to find the gate, we finally asked the young boys playing football about the door. All we got from them was that the zoo opens every day at 5 p.m. Finally we found the main gate. We saw a number of cars parked outside and a few other cars inside. We also saw three men strolling around inside. One of them, an elderly man, said he was the guard and told us that we could not enter because the zoo was closed.
“It has been closed since 2005 and entry is banned without a permit signed by the mayor,” he said. He told us that some investors were working on the zoo, which would reopen next year.
We asked the guard about the reason behind the closure of the zoo, he claimed that “one of the wild animals” escaped and injured a local resident. When we asked how long the zoo had been here, we were given conflicting answers. Some people said it was built 18 years ago while others said it was 30 years old.
The conflict in the age of the forgotten zoo, as well as the negligence and the closure, prompted us to go to the man in charge, Bahjat Hammou. We called him for an appointment to give us permission to enter the zoo and to answer some of our questions.
We went to him in his office and he appeared to be welcoming, but things changed after our first question about the establishment of the zoo. He did not only considered the question to be provocative but accused us of being “impolite with no manners.”
Today this forgotten zoo has become a sad place. A local resident, Ala Al-Kattib, claimed that he witnessed a group of local boys stoning an elephant to death not long after it was closed. There are claims that a gorilla still lives inside, chained in fetters. The zoo has also apparently been turned into quarantine for old and sick animals.
“The horses confiscated from the Corniche are also brought here,” the guard said.
