Footage of starved Sun bears in Indonesian zoo spark social media outrage

Indonesia’s Bandung Zoo is nothing short of horrific and barbaric.

A video of skeletal Sun Bears begging for food in the enclosures has recently gone viral on social media and has sparked an outrage.

The Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group, which shot videos of the bears last year, said it now wants the zoo closed down. On Wednesday, animal rights activists demanded the closure of the Indonesian zoo after skeletal sun bears were pictured begging for food from visitors and eating their own faeces!

In the horrifying video, the bears at the zoo in the city of Bandung were shown waving their arms and walking restlessly inside their enclosure – with their rib-cages visible through their unkempt fur – as visitors threw food at them.
Indonesia’s most infamous zoo, Bandung Zoo, has been dubbed as ‘soul destroying’ because hundreds of animals have perished there in recent years.

The zoo was under major scrutiny prior to this incident as well. Last year, the zoo was temporarily shut down following the death of Yani, a Sumatran elephant. Upon examination it was found that she had bruises all over her body.

This is what a healthy Sun Bear looks like:

These are the saddening pictures of the Sun bears at the Indonesian zoo:

Check out the video that has recently been picked up and gone viral:

Another video shows an out of shape bear resorting to eat his own excrement:

Numerous online petitions have sprung up asking Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo to take action and completely shut the zoo down. Petitions for shutting down the zoo have received more than 300,000 signatures on change.org and Care2.
Surprisingly, the Bandung zoo is not the only zoo in Indonesia to be called out for its inhumane conditions. Another zoo in the city of Surabaya has been dubbed the “Zoo of Death” because many animals have died there due to poor conditions.

Both zoos have released statements saying that the management is taking care of the animals and are doing their jobs. This has angered animal activist groups to a whole new level as all the pictures and videos clearly show that animals are being neglected in both the zoos.

Is the Indonesian government listening to the pleas or is it falling on deaf ears?