Contractor refuses food supply to animals at Karachi Zoo over non-payment

KARACHI: A contractor responsible for providing food to animals at Karachi Zoo has barred all supplies over lack of payment from the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC), ARY NEWS reported on Monday.

According to sources privy to the development, the contractor is refusing to provide food items to the administration of Karachi Zoo citing a lack of payment from the municipal authorities.

They said that the finance department of the KMC has not cleared bills of the contractor since February this year and the contractor today pasted a notice at the zoo that he would not be providing the food anymore.

The administration at the Zoo also confirmed the development saying that they are only left with food supplies for a few days in ration godown.

Lack of proper facilities have previously led to a worst-case scenario of animal deaths at the Karachi Zoo and in one such case this year, the second of the two lions, illegally brought to Karachi that was held in 2017 by the Wild Life department and kept in Karachi Zoo enclosures, died of ‘fatty heart’.

Karachi Zoo director said the lion died of old age and that the average lifespan of a lion is 18 years normally.

The Wild Life Department of Sindh with the help of District East officials captivated the two lions back in 2017 as they were brought into the city illegally. One of the two had died the later year of their fostering in the zoo, due to old age as well, the directed claimed.

According to the post mortem of the deceased lion today, the cause of death was cardiac arrest due to heavy fat deposits on its heart.