When I first started this web site, it was shortly after the Iraq invasion and I became very concerned about the animals in the zoos in Baghdad, who were starving and being killed and killing and living under terrible conditions. I am attaching an article that I searched out because I had not heard anything for quite a while. It is information from March, but does indicate that things are much better and are improving. From the earlier articles, I really gathered that the Iraquies were and probably are very proud of their zoos.

Here is the most recent information that I could find. It is from the North Carolina Zoo.

Update on Assistance to Baghdad and Kabul Zoos-
The Last Few Months

Baghdad

The situation appears to be stable with most animals now housed satisfactorily, if not optimally. Issues still remain around the need to sterilize (prevent breeding) amongst the larger carnivores, the rehousing of nine lions at Uday Hussein’s old palace and one or two clinical cases, notably an aged blind brown bear. The great advantage that Baghdad has over Kabul is competent leadership with keen and fairly knowledgeable Iraqis heading the operation ably assisted by Brendan Jones from South Africa and with considerable logistic help continuing from the coalition forces. We recently facilitated the visit of the three most senior Iraqi staff including the Director and Deputy Director with Brendan Jones to the UK to look at designs for large cat and bear enclosures, constructed at relatively low cost and to give them an extended network of people to whom they can turn to for advice, particularly on this type of construction. The trip also enabled them to talk to a wide variety of animal staff at Whipsnade, Woburn, Marwell and London Zoos. This trip already appears to be having a beneficial effect on the discussions relating to the rebuilding of exhibits in the Baghdad Zoo. The remaining AZA-linked funds being held by the N.C. Zoo Society will be used largely for the purchase of construction materials and items for enclosure rebuilding that have not been provided through the coalition. Captain William Sumner, who has been in charge of the Zoo site, along with other antiquity sites in Baghdad, will be leaving Iraq shortly. He has played a major role in assisting with the Zoo, particularly in its difficult times during the first few months after U.S. troops took over. We are looking for opportunities for the Iraqi Zoo staff to network more effectively with the better Zoos in the Arabian Gulf region and Middle East generally. There is a rather loosely organized Middle Eastern Zoos Association, but attempts are being made to strengthen that at the moment and the Baghdad staff should try to play a role in that. Like all the Zoos in the region, these sites are very popular with the public and the big challenge for Baghdad Zoo in the coming years, as outside help withdraws, is to see whether they are able to attract enough resources to continue the rebuilding program with a keen eye on evolving Zoo standards around the world. With the caliber of senior staff that they have, Baghdad, together with one or two other zoos in the Middle East and several in India and possibly one in Pakistan, could become models for what the region might achieve in terms of improved Zoo standards. A critical issue is a cultural one where Islamic society generally, despite the pro-animal welfare teachings of the Koran, are not generally disposed to proactively promoting high standards of animal welfare. However, there are a few notable exceptions driven by some key individuals and Baghdad’s Deputy Director, Dr. Farrah Murrani is probably one of those.

Kabul

With significantly more of our specially donated funds applied to Kabul than Baghdad one would think that the long-term future there would be better. The difficulty however is that Kabul Zoo has no other resources than ours and no well-trained animal staff. With the exception of the new Education Officer, the general levels of knowledge there are poor. Considerable emphasis is being put into looking for ways that we can provide them with training and also to see whether there is any possibility of the Municipality appointing one or two better qualified people to help run the site.

Approximately half of the resources available for Kabul from the AZA/NC Zoo Society funds have been used to supplement day to day running costs, notably salary supplements and the purchase of animal foods and essential supplies. Currently we are reducing those supplements gradually and it is planned to end them in May. We have asked the Municipality for a plan as to how they intend to fund the site in the coming years. This has not yet been forthcoming. In the meantime, the other half of the available funds are being used for reconstruction purposes. A significant amount has been spent on the improvement of infrastructure, particularly water supply and electric power to all the major buildings. Approximately half the exhibits have either been rebuilt or are in the process of being rebuilt and this program has focused on facilities for the larger carnivores, primates and large birds. The latest photos show very clearly the considerable improvement that has taken place over the last year. Nevertheless, there are a lot of out of date and ramshackle structures, which will either be definitively earmarked for future conversion or demolished and the rubble removed. The Afghans are very reluctant to pull down old buildings in the expectation that they will be rebuilt and one of the challenges here is to convince them that many of these structures would be better removed at this stage and completely replaced if and when resources become available.

Nick Lindsay, senior Curator from the London Zoo and now head of their overseas operations, together with John Lewis, an independent Veterinarian with considerable Zoo animal experience, will be making another week-long visit to Kabul in the latter half of March with a long list of “to dos”. Amongst them will be sterilization of most of the male animals to prevent further reproduction and a clinical assessment of the Asiatic Black Bear, “Donatella”, which has been one of the chronic issues since she was discovered during the early days of our involvement with severe Leishmaniasis and physical damage to her nose. The issue here is the lack of day to day veterinary attention and facilities required to give such an animal the intensive care she needs. This assessment will be followed by a decision on what the long-term prognosis would be for her and where, if treatment is possible, she should be placed (almost certainly out of the country). This team will also be discussing some further capital work with the Municipality, again concentrating on the larger mammals, to include probably a second bear enclosure.

The International Crane Foundation have now come alongside us with a wish to construct a wetlands exhibit for those species of cranes that used to or still use Afghanistan as a migration corridor. The main discussions this time are likely to be around the long-term future of the Zoo and ways in which it can be financially stabilized. Our expectation is to withdraw from further funding by the end of this calendar year, although some reserve funds will be held back against emergency situations. So often in these situations there is a chronic problem of aid reliance- a feeling that those helping now in a country like Afghanistan will continue to assist regardless of what they do for themselves. It is very important that the responsibility be handed back firmly to them well before the funds dry up in order that that hand-over process can be given assistance. What we are trying also is to interest other agencies such as the diplomatic missions (we have already had considerable help from the British Embassy) and United Nations agencies and other aid operations. The long-term hope is that the Kabul Zoo can act as a focus for interest, education and public awareness of the natural environment of this ravaged country. We hope for example that the addition of the International Crane Foundation to the Kabul Zoo team will be the start of a wider coalition where that site can develop its true environmental education potential. At the same time, it is also probably the most popular place in Kabul for families to go on a Friday (their “weekend”). As with Baghdad and other zoological parks across the region, such places are very popular and there is a huge challenge in trying to get the authorities to take them more seriously and begin to use them in ways that parallel the current thinking about the role of Zoos and similar biological institutions elsewhere in the world.

DMJ/jnh
03-03-04


I was pleased to get a personal response from the zoo in North Carolina.

Have a nice Sunday.

Mary

Can doggies get epilepsy? Chelsea has had three little seizures in the past three days. This morning was really rather scary. She collapsed and we had a bit of trouble getting her out of it. Once she recovers she seems just fine - running around and acting perfectly normal. We took her to see Dr. Zechlinski and he couldn't find anything wrong but is doing blood tests to see if anything shows up.

I planted today. The pots under the deck are now full and in place. Tomorrow I will finish. Good thing because the bushes are ready for trimming already, even with the lack of sun. I guess all the rain is good for what I have.

The reading from Cadfael is nice today.

" 'Well, well!' said Cadfael silently to himself, and left the unsoluble to the solver of all problems."

Have a great Memorial Day weekend.

Mary

It has been a VERY long day. The most fun was the hour I spent at Rocky Knoll playing Bingo with the residents there. I promised a lady named Jules that I would bring her a honeysuckle or a marigold the next time I come. I put it on the calendar, so I should remember.

Sunday, Mother, Bart and Barb will be here for dinner. I am making the Famous Kunert Spinach, Egg and Cheese Casserole. I will give you the recipe. Perhaps I have done so already but it would have been quite a while ago and I know there are some recent readers.

FAMOUS KUNERT SPINACH EGG AND NOODLE CASSEROLE

4 Cups Cooked Noodles
1 Can Spinach (Drained)
Velveeta Cheese
8 hard boiled eggs
Margarine

Layer in the order listed. Noodles, tablespoons of spinach, sliced Velveeta, sliced hard eggs. About three layers and bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour until hot and the cheese is all melted through.

This is so good that even people who don't like spinach like it. Jim would not eat it from childhood because he said he didn't like spinach. Then, I prepared it one evening planning on another meal for Dick, Bart and me. When I went to get it, there was none left. He had come home, snug around lots and lots of beer, and ate it all - cold no less. He looked rather sheepish but has eaten it ever since and quite enthusiastically if I do say so myself. He used the excuse that it tasted ok cold.

Try it, you'll like it.

Love

Mary

When I was growing up, there used to be a pond over across the street in back of Richardson's Lumber. I don't know if the pond is there any more, but we used to go down there to catch frogs and some of the boys had built a couple of rafts to float around on. One day, I climbed on one of the rafts, one that was pretty well falling apart and started drifting out into the pond. I got out too far to go back and whomever I was with ran up the hill and home to tell Mother. She came with Mrs. Painter (A neighbor) and her boots but Mrs. Painter wisely knew that there was no way to wade out to get me because the pond was really swampy.

She got her son Kenny to come down. Kenny got on the other raft and poled out to get me and he saved me.

Isn't that a nice story. When Kenny started kindergarten, a few years before he saved me, he took me with him one day for something like show and tell.

The Painters are lovely people and I have fond memories of them.

Her is a little poem by R. S. Thomas

I think that maybe
I will be a little surer
Of being a little nearer.
That's all. Eternity
Is in the understanding
That that little is more than enough.

Sunny today so we bought plants and I even planted a few.

Love

Mary

I checked the planters this morning and my marigold seeds are sprouting. At least it has been warm enough for that. Dick did point out that there have been a couple of really hot days before this last siege of rain and chill. The marigolds are very important. I make wine out of the petals in the Fall of the year. It is a very interesting sherry tasting wine. I also harvest the seeds for next years crop. Aren't I the thrifty one?

Yesterday at Bible Study, I shared the following. I received this probably 25 years ago from Cal, a fellow real estate agent at the Real Estaters in Huntington Beach:

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER

I'd like to make more mistakes next time. I'd relax. I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would take more trips. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers. I would eat more ice cream and less beans. I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I'd have fewer imaginary ones.

You, see, I'm one of those people who live sensibly and sanely hour after hour, day after day. Oh, I've have my moments, and if I had it to do over again, I'd have more of them. In fact,I'd try to have nothing else. Just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of each day. I've been one of those persons who never goes anywhere without a thermometer, a hot water bottle, a raincoat, and a parachute. If I had to do it again, I would travel lighter than I have.

If I had my life to live over, I would start barefoot earlier in the spring and stay that way later in the fall. I would go to more dances. I would ride more merry-go-rounds. I would pick more daisies.

Written by: Nadine Stair, 85 years old of Louisville Kentucky.

I am sharing this also because a member of the Sheboygan County Writer's Club, Betty Marketos passed away this week. She was a charming lady who shared her life in the stories she wrote. She wrote of her youth and her travels in such a beautiful way that we felt we were seeing and experiencing the places and the time. She will be greatly missed. She certainly lived her life to its fullest.

Til tomorrow

Mary

Monday, Monday. The sunshine promised this afternoon did not appear.

I shot my first league set at Falls Conservation and did terribly. It was chilly and I was wearing my jean jacket and could not get the gun to shoulder properly. No excuse, I guess, but I will never wear a loose jacket again. I will practice Sunday and shoot league again on June 7th. Maybe I can be sure it WAS just the jacket by the practicing.

"If you live to be a hundred,
I want to live to be
a hundred minus one day,
so I never have to live
without you. "

-- Winnie the Pooh

Til tomorrow

Mary

I read a summary of an important part of the Koran years ago that really impressed me. It stated that - Every child has a right to believe that the world was created Just for him (or her.) I really liked that. Children are so eager and open and so trusting. They have this inate feeling of self that if not destroyed can be refreshing and beautiful. I wish all the children in the world could be cushioned and treated this way.

I always remember one year, while feeding my Bret as a baby of about 9 to 10 months, watching a documentary or new show or something on a famine area in Africa. I can still see this baby, his eyes as big as his face, so trusting and so sad in a thin pitiful little body. I wished that half of what my baby didn't even finish could have gone to Africa. It would have brought that child a healthy body and a chance to grow strong and healthy.

FIRST BABY

FIRST LOOK

by Hutz Deeley (My Dad as he described his first look at me, his first child.)


When I first saw you this is what I said.
That can't be ours, bring out another one instead.
But your Mother pleaded. "Let's wait and see."
And reluctantly I did agree.
In a couple of days your face did clear
The scars were gone and with them my fear.
After a time some good looks did gather
Tho sorry to say you resembled your father.
When more years did pass, another, another.
Praise to the Lord, you looked more like your mother.
You grew quite fast and into your teens
And took your right place in the rank of the queens.
Time quickly passed, you went out on your own.
A mother yourself and a good one it's known.
Altho you've grown older as all people do.
No one could tell it by looking at you.
You really are pretty, may it never fade
So now I'll take back the first statement I made.
And now I'll conclude with this old Irish Song,
Be a long time in Heaven
Before the devil knows you're gone.
There was a second ending for the 1st BABY poem:

You really are pretty that surely is true
And have changed all my thoughts of my first look at you
This story must prove and please take my advice
Never judge a picture til you've looked at it twice.


I am glad it is evening and I can rest now.

Have a nice evening.

Mary