UPDATE: Kabul Zoo and Afghan Animals

Dear Donors,

Thank you for your gifts to relieve the suffering of animals in Afghanistan. As of December 21, the N.C. Zoo Society had received more than $211,000 in donations for the Kabul Zoo Fund and another $38,000 for the Afghan Animal Fund. One hundred percent of these monies will help animal relief efforts in Afghanistan.

Gifts to the Kabul Zoo Fund will provide food, shelter and veterinary care to its animals and pay their keepers' salaries. Gifts to the Afghan Animal Fund will help needy Afghans provide humane and compassionate care to their companion and working animals and provide food, shelter, veterinary services and other necessities to native wildlife, domestic animals and animals in zoos.

Update: Kabul Zoo Fund

The N.C. Zoo Director Dr. David Jones went to London the week of December 11 on a business trip for the N.C. Zoo. While in London, he delivered a $5,000 check from the Kabul Zoo Fund to the London Office of the World Society for the Protection of Animals. That gift will go directly to the Kabul Zoo director, following a route similar to the one that took a $3,000 donation to the Kabul Zoo two weeks earlier. (A reporter covering the war delivered the check to the zoo.)

The combined gifts have provided enough money to care for the zoo and its animals through early January. The information we have from Kabul is still sketchy, but assures us that all of the zoo's animals have food, fresh bedding and are as warm and as safe as possible. Their immediate veterinary needs have been met, and the keepers who have cared so loyally for these animals over the years, have been paid for their recent services. Thank you for making this possible!

The Kabul Zoo Fund will continue to help the zoo and its animals far into the future. Additionally, as soon as the situation in Kabul stabilizes, the fund will help send an international team of zoo experts into Kabul to address the animalsÌ needs, provide immediate staff support and assess the ZooÌs immediate and long-term needs.

Dr. Ehsan Argandewal, former Dean of the Science Faculty at Kabul University, will likely head that team. Kabul University established the Kabul Zoo some 30 years ago. Dr. Argandewal fled to Germany after the Taliban came to power. Other team members will be likely be selected from the staff working in several German zoos, particularly in Cologne. Many of these professionals have extensive experience working with animals in Afghanistan.

Once this team has made its recommendations, The Kabul Zoo Fund will help carry them out, ensuring ample food, adequate veterinary care, power and water for the zoo and its animals. Exhibits and barns and other zoo buildings will also be repaired. If all goes as planned, this work should begin in the next six to 12 months.

Update: Afghan Animal Fund

Reports out of Afghanistan estimate that more than one million domestic animals are among the displaced refuges in Afghanistan. Many of these animals, like their owners, need food, water, shelter and medical care. The Afghan Animal Fund will help provide these services through grants to legitimate non-profits, such as the World Society for the Protection of Animals and the Brooke Hospital for Animals, which already have veterinarians and animal relief workers operating in the region. One hundred percent of the monies in this fund will go directly to serve domestic and wild animals in Afghanistan. Dr. Jones, Director of the N.C. Zoo, is communicating almost daily with both these organizations to determine when checks should be sent to them and how the money will be used. To read a recent BBC article on the work the Brooke Hospital for Animals is conducting on the Afghanistan/Pakistan border, please click here.

Future Updates

The Zoo Society will send out e-mails to donors at least quarterly to explain how the Kabul Zoo and Afghan Animal funds have improved the lives of these animals and their caretakers. We will also post these e-mails on our Web page for donors who do not have e-mail but can access the site using computers in local libraries. If you have not given us your e-mail address and want these updates, please e-mail jparker@nczoo.com and ask to have your name added to the Animal Update List.

Gifts to either fund are 100 percent tax deductible. And 100 percent of every gift made to either fund will be used to ease the suffering of animals in Afghanistan.

Please mail your donation to:

N.C. Zoo Society
4403 Zoo Parkway
Asheboro, NC
27205

or call, toll free, 1-888-244-3736 to charge your gift. Please call the N.C. Zoo Society between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Eastern Standard Time, Monday - Friday.

Thank you.