Pukyung Zoo, Cheongju Zoo Transfer Agreement
"Zoos That Confine Animals Must Now Disappear"
The so-called "Galbi Lion," known for living alone in the old and poor facilities of Bukyeong Zoo in Bukyeong-dong, Gimhae, Gyeongnam, while aging and becoming emaciated, will be transferred to Cheongju Zoo in Chungbuk. This male lion is 20 years old, which is close to 100 years in human age. He was born in 2004 at Seoul Children's Grand Park and was transferred to Bukyeong Zoo in 2016.
An old male lion born in 2004 at Bukyeong Zoo, Gimhae-si, Gyeongnam. [Photo by Gimhae City Hall website, captured from 'Wishes to the Mayor of Gimhae']
[Image source=Yonhap News]
The Bukyeong Zoo stated, "The zoo opened in 2013, and around 2016, we received the lion from Seoul Children's Grand Park." Initially, he lived with a female lion, but after she died, he has lived alone ever since.
The lion lived for over seven years in a narrow cage located inside a building. Three sides and the ceiling, except for the transparent window installed for visitors to observe, were closed off, and the floor was a hard cement surface. He spent a long time eating chicken given daily by the zookeeper without experiencing any natural phenomena.
The fate of this lone lion changed after requests to save the lion and to close the zoo were consecutively posted on the Gimhae City Hall website's "Requests to the Mayor of Gimhae" in June.
Cheongju Zoo in Chungbuk stepped forward to take the lion and care for him, and the operator of Bukyeong Zoo in Gimhae agreed. The lion will spend the rest of his life in a new home. Unlike the cage at Bukyeong Zoo, the lion enclosure at Cheongju Zoo offers a relatively free environment where he can walk on soil in a space of about 400 to 500 pyeong (approximately 1,322 to 1,653 square meters).
Cheongju Zoo, which has been early to recognize animal welfare, emphasizes the role of treating and caring for animals rescued from the wild rather than confining them for viewing. They do not hold performances involving animals. The zoo has a wildlife rescue center where animals with permanent disabilities are brought for treatment and to spend the rest of their lives or to be humanely euthanized.
Lions are social animals, and fortunately, Cheongju Zoo has lions aged 12 and nearly 20 years old, so if the Bukyeong Zoo lion adapts to the new environment, it is expected that he may form a social group.
Animal lovers emphasized that zoos are relics of a bygone era that should disappear.
Kim Aera, head of the Busan Association for the Prevention of Animal Abuse, said in an interview with Yonhap News, "Animals should live freely where they originally lived," adding, "Ultimately, facilities that confine living animals for viewing should disappear as a matter of course."
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