Many people especially those who believe in creation think that the human being comprises the body, the spirit and soul. The body dies but the spirit and soul which is the breathe of God never dies. This attribute of creature is supposed to apply to only human beings. All other creatures die and that is the end. Well, maybe it was about time you reconsider that view if that is your position as the following story culled from AP illustrates.
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — There is an afterlife for animals at the Khan Younis zoo in the impoverished Gaza Strip.
Animals who die in the dilapidated park return to
be displayed as stuffed creatures, giving visitors the unusual zoo
experience of petting a lion, tiger or crocodile. But because taxidermy
in the largely isolated Palestinian territory is not advanced and
expertise and materials are in short supply, the experience can be grim.
Flies swarm around some of the 10 animals that have
been embalmed so far. The makeshift cages housing the exhibits —
fashioned from fencing salvaged from Jewish settlements that Israel
dismantled in 2005 — are littered with empty soda cans and other trash.
An emaciated-looking stuffed lion, its coat patchy
and mangy, lies on an exhibit cobbled together from crates and shipping
pallets. A monkey had missing limbs. A porcupine had a hole in its head.
The zoo's 65 live animals, which include ostriches, monkeys, turtles,
deer, a llama, a lion and a tiger, don't fare much better. During a
recent visit, children poked chocolate, potato chips and bread through
the wire. There's no zookeeper on the premises. Gaza has no government
body that oversees zoos, and medical treatment is done by consulting
over the phone with zoo veterinarians in Egypt.
Still, the zoo is one of the few places of
entertainment here in Khan Younis, a city of 200,000 people at the
southern end of the Gaza Strip. It's one of five zoos in the Gaza Strip,
a densely populated coastal enclave of 1.7 million people ruled by
Islamic Hamas militants.
Owner Mohammed Awaida said he opened the "South
Forest Park" in 2007, only to lose a number of animals during Israel's
military offensive against Hamas that began in December 2008. During the
three-week offensive, launched in response to rocket attacks on Israel,
Awaida said he could not reach the zoo, and many animals died of
neglect and starvation.
"The idea to mummify animals started after the Gaza
war because a number of animals like the lion, the tiger, monkeys and
crocodiles died," he said. "So we asked around and we learned from the
Web how to start."
Formaldehyde and sawdust provided the basic tools,
though Awaida acknowledges he is no expert. Gaza's zoos are used to
resorting to odd ways to get by amid the territory's multiple woes. In
2009, a zoo in Gaza City exhibited white donkeys painted with black
stripes to look like zebras because it was too expensive to replace two
zebras who were neglected during the Israeli offensive.
Since Hamas violently took control of Gaza in 2007,
Israel has blocked Gaza's ports, waters and all but one border crossing
into Israel. Egypt has also restricted movement through its border
crossing, meaning new animals must be smuggled at great expense through
an elaborate network of underground tunnels on the Gazan-Egyptian
border.
Awaida said all of his animals except the birds
came through the tunnels. Preserving dead zoo animals is not new to
Palestinians. In the West Bank city of Qalqilya, zoo veterinarian Sami
Khader turned to taxidermy nine years ago when a giraffe named Brownie
died during the second Palestinian uprising against Israel.
Khader, who had extensive training and experience
in taxidermy from years working in Saudi Arabia, stuffed Brownie and
moved him to the zoo's museum. Today that museum includes a hyena, wolf,
birds, camel, raccoons and a tiger.
Fighting with Israel has since subsided and the zoo
maintains close connections with the Ramat Gan Safari outside Tel Aviv.
But administrators say that Israeli restrictions still make it
cumbersome to get new animals.
"We have more variations and different species as
preserved animals than we have living," said Amjad al-Haj, the zoo's
financial director. "If there will be more restrictions we may end up
calling it preserved animals zoo."
Conditions in Khan Younis — and its zoo — are far
worse. Whereas Khader is a veterinarian and professional taxidermist,
Awaida is untrained. "I use many ingredients for the embalming, not one
or two, and the ingredients and method will vary from animal to animal,"
Khader said. "It's not enough to just go read on the Internet."
And Awaida does not have the contacts with Israeli
zoos that Qalqilya has, a reflection of Gaza's near-complete separation
from Israel. Like the other zoos in Gaza, the Khan Younis facility is
virtually unsupervised. There is no animal rights movement in the
territory.
Hassan Azzam, director of the veterinary services
department in Gaza's ministry of agriculture, said, "We have humble
capabilities," but the ministry encourages zoos. However somber the Khan
Younis zoo, it does offer entertainment to children.
Samir Amer, 14, snapped pictures of the animals
with his mobile phone. "I have been to this place before years ago but
this is my first time seeing mummified animals," he said. "They look
like they are asleep. I will print out the pictures of me standing next
to the lion and put it on my wall. It will be fun to show it to my
younger brothers."
Dalia Nammari in Ramallah and Daniella Cheslow in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
