Lion sculpture a reminder of N.C. Zoo's global outreach

By Kathi Keys
Staff Writer, The Courier-Tribune

ASHEBORO -- A bronze sculpture of Marjan, the Kabul Zoo's ailing lion who became a symbol of war-ravaged Afghanistan, will be on display later this year at the N.C. Zoo for a few months before it is shipped overseas.

A Texas sculptor is preparing the bronze of Marjan who received worldwide attention more than two years ago through the Kabul Zoo and Afghanistan animal fund-raising effort coordinated by the N.C. Zoo and the N.C. Zoological Society.

N.C. Zoo Director Dr. David Jones, who has been actively involved with efforts to help the Kabul Zoo, updated members of the N.C. Zoo Council Feb. 25 about the global outreach project.

"Marjan the lion stimulated interest in the wildlife in Afghanistan," Jones said.

Bob Coffee, an Austin, Texas, sculptor, submitted a proposal nearly two years ago to create a memorial sculpture of Marjan and Kabul officials agreed to the donation.

"This old, busted-up lion, with one eye, his jaw hanging down - he was the symbol of this country. Old, ailing, but proud, like Afghanistan," said John Walsh after Marjan died in January 2002.

Walsh has been international projects director of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, a partner in the international effort to help the zoo.

In a 2002 visit to the local zoo, Walsh expressed the hope that a sculpture of the lion would be installed at the Kabul Zoo with only three words to describe Marjan, who was 24 years old, and the country's people - Old. Ailing. Proud."

Hundreds made donations to the fund after learning about the plight of Marjan who was found to be blind in both eyes and had been at the zoo during 23 years of war and cruelty in Afghanistan. He had lost one eye to a grenade in the 1990s and lost weight during the war years. The apparent cause of death was kidney and liver damage.

More than $600,000 has been raised, through the N.C. Zoo and its nonprofit support organization, the N.C. Zoological Society, to aid both the beleaguered Baghdad and Kabul zoos and animals in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The effort has been coordinated by local zoo officials, specifically Jones and Zoo Society Executive Director Russ Williams, on behalf of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) and other international animal welfare groups.

Jones also told members of the N.C. Zoo Council on Feb. 25 that the local zoo's involvement may be completed by the end of the year.

"We will try to exit from Baghdad and Kabul by the end of the calendar year," he said.

He said that there are still nine lions to be moved, from one of the former palaces, to the Baghdad Zoo. Security concerns have been hampering efforts in Iraq, but the basic husbandry needs of animals at the zoo are being met.

Jones said the Kabul Zoo situation "is more complex and fortunately, we have more money to help them. About a half of the zoo has been rebuilt."

A total of $94,704 in donations had been received, as of January, to help the Iraq Animal Fund which was established a year ago to help animals in both public and private zoos.

Donations for the Kabul Zoo have totaled $549,918, including $414,225 for the zoo facility and $135,693 for the animals.

Jones and Williams recently issued this statement to donors: "The N.C. Zoo and Zoo Society, along with the people and the animals of Afghanistan and Iraq, remain deeply indebted to the many compassionate and caring people who have so generously contributed to easing the pain and the suffering of animals caught in wars. Thank you for your humanity and for your refusal to let their suffering go unheeded and unheard."

Kabul Zoo

The zoo society has been accepting donations, since late 2001, to help the animals in the Kabul Zoo and offer assistance to other Afghan animals, both domestic and wild, that were suffering as a result of the Taliban and the war that began to displace that government.

Money has been spent on assisting the Kabul Zoo staff reconstruct many of the zoo's major exhibits.

The construction projects include a new bird house, a new monkey island, an extended second bear exhibit, improved housing for ungulates and a range of infrastructure work that has repaired fencing, improved the water supply and the power supply and allowed for some initial landscaping.

The British Embassy in Kabul, together with other agencies, has helped with repairs and provided some equipment for the repaired staff offices.

Funding through the N.C. Zoo Society fund has provided salary supplements for the Kabul Zoo staff and purchased all of the animal food, however, the Kabul Municipal government was notified that this funding will stop in February 2004.

N.C. Zoo staff has been working with Kabul City staff to emphasize that funding through the zoo society is finite and is being rapidly depleted by growing construction costs which have risen substantially in Kabul since the country was liberated from the Taliban. The goal is to ensure that the City of Kabul assumes total financial responsibility for the Kabul Zoo by the early spring of 2004.

Funds have been reserved to refurbish the worst exhibits, particularly those inhabited by the larger mammals and birds.

Both the N.C. Zoo and society have actively discouraged the acquisition of any new animals. This process was complicated when China sent a gift of new animals to the Kabul Zoo. A substantial part of the capital funding originally planned for repairing the zoo had to be diverted to improve the facilities that were needed to care properly for these animals - most of which are large and demand significant space and care.

In the next few months, funding through the N.C. Zoo Society will take London Zoo officials back into Kabul where they will finalize the Kabul Zoo's construction efforts and the zoo's male animals will be neutered and other medical care provided to the collection.

Of the total raised for the Kabul Zoo, $165,041 had been spent as of Jan. 20, 2004, with $249,184 remaining for the reconstruction effort. A total of $80,044 had been spent from the Afghan animal fund, with $55,649 remaining.

Baghdad Zoo

The fund set up in February 2003 to help in Iraq has paid for food and veterinary services to animals from Iraq zoos, especially the Baghdad Zoo, and to domestic animals like horses, donkeys and dogs.

N.C. Zoo Director Dr. David M. Jones remains in regular phone contact with the Baghdad Zoo assistance team, providing day-to-day advice on zoo operations and networking with zoo professionals around the world to provide support.

In partnership with the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the N.C. Zoo Society funded part of the original emergency team that swept into Baghdad to help the animals when U.S. forces claimed the city. The funds provided equipment, supplies and food for the animals. Once the Baghdad Zoo began to stabilize, the Iraqi Central Authority assumed these functions and has been funding the zoo's basic needs since then.

The N.C. Zoo's recent focus has been to ensure that the Baghdad Zoo staff has easy and direct access to help and advice from zoo specialists in other countries.

Funding has provided reading materials, including books and key papers, and has arranged for senior Baghdad Zoo staff to visit other zoos within the next two to three months. The visits will provide key Iraqi staff with ideas and conceptual training for replacing the Baghdad Zoo's small, substandard exhibits with quality exhibition spaces that provide space for animals to exercise properly and participate in enrichment activities.

Once the security situation improves, the N.C. Zoo Society will send an independent zoo design consultant to Baghdad to work with the zoo staff there to devise a plan to replace many of the existing exhibits in the coming two to three years. The international community has money to help with these capital costs.

Of the total raised for the Iraq Animal Fund, $55,967 had been spent as of Jan. 20, 2004, with $38,738 remaining.