To date, donors have provided more than $388,607 for the Kabul Zoo Fund
and another $124,927 for the Afghan Animal Fund.
Kabul Zoo Fund
Because of your gifts to the Kabul Zoo Fund, a second team of zoological
professionals will begin arriving in Kabul tomorrow (March 8) and will
be working for the animals for the next 20-30 days.
Professor Clas Nauman, chairman of Bonn University's Kabul committee,
will be the first team member to arrive. He should be in Kabul sometime
March 9. He is flying into Kabul via Uzbekistan on a German Airforce
plane. Prof. Nauman is a zoologist, a former resident of Kabul, and the
founder of a museum, now defunct, that used to be part of the Kabul
Zoo. Prof. Nauman has been asked to make a general assessment of the
Zoo and its animals, and also begin assessing the political and the
safety issues affecting the animals, the Zoo, and future animal relief
programs.
It is hoped that Ehsan Argandewal, the ex-dean of Science at Kabul
University and Tawfik Nuri, the former head keeper at the Kabul Zoo,
will arrive in Kabul next week to assist Prof. Naumann. Their schedule
is somewhat tenuous, since their transportation into Afghanistan will
depend on their ability to secure passage on Ariana, the recently
restarted Afghan Airlines. Reservations are not an option on this
airline, and flights in and out of Kabul will depend on the changing
situation in Kabul and with the war. Both of these individuals currently
work at the Cologne Zoo. Once in Kabul, they will remain for 20-30 days
to assist with the animals and the Zoo.
In approximately two weeks, two British citizens will arrive to finish
out the team. One will be Dr. John Lewis, a World Society for the
Protection of Animals veterinarian. The second will be Nick Lindsay, a
senior curator at the London and Whipsnade Zoos. They, too, will fly on
Ariana airlines and plan to stay 7-10 days.
As a team, these four will provide what is needed for the animals and
will start to make some long-term plans for the animals. Dr. Lewis will
also try to surgically repair Sambu's (the Asiatic Black Bear's) nose.
It has failed to heal as quickly, or as well, as we hoped it would.
Once the group leaves Afghanistan, the entire team will fly to London to
meet with Dr. David Jones, Director of the N.C. Zoo to draw up a plan of
action for the Zoo and its animals.
Afghan Animal Fund
The Zoo is currently working with the World Society for the Protection
of Animals (WSPA) and with the Brooke Hospital for Animals to determine
the best way to help Afghanistan's domestic animals. The Brooke
Hospital is considering the possibility of flying in an entire mobile
clinic to treat equines (donkeys and horses). It appears that WSPA will
take the lead in providing veterinary services to other domestic
species, primarily dogs.
As these plans develop, we will post them on our Web site and e-mail
them to donors. We will continue to keep you posted on happenings at the
Kabul Zoo as information becomes available to us. The information we
are able to get from Kabul is still sketchy and intermittent.
The Zoo Society and the World Society for the Protection of Animals
(WSPA) recently learned of a Reuter's news report that inaccurately
suggests that WSPA is preparing to send $500,000 to Kabul to rebuild the
zoo and bring in new animals. (That report is absolutely FALSE.)
The report also described Kabul zookeepers as being unable to use food
and medicines that were donated to the zoo because the labels are
written in English.
Neither WSPA nor the N.C. Zoo Society donated foods or medicines with
English labels to the Kabul Zoo. Several other charities have also been
helping the zoo and brought these rations and drugs into Kabul. Funds
from the Zoo Society are being used by WSPA to purchase fresh food for
the animals.
When John Walsh, International Project Director for WSPA, learned of the
communication problems the keepers were having with these medicines and
foods, he immediately arranged for a U.S. Military veterinarian to go to
the Kabul Zoo to interpret the labels for the Zoo staff.
We will continue to keep you posted on progress at the Kabul Zoo and
respond to news reports about the animals and the animal relief workers,
equipment and supplies your gifts have supported. We continue also to
help the animals in the Kabul Zoo by working through our partner, WSPA.
If you have any questions, please contact us and we will do our best to
find answers for you. In the meantime, we all want to say thank you
once again to each of you. Without your generosity, none of these
programs would be possible and there would be little hope for the
animals of Afghanistan.
Sincerely,
Russ Williams
Executive Director
