MANILA, Philippines - The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Asia sent a funeral wreath to the Manila Zoo after learning of the death of its lone orangutan, Sisi.
The wreath sent by PETA had a ribbon adorned with the message – “Sisi: Suffered in Life, Peace in Death” and a card calling on zoo officials to close the facility’s doors.
In a statement, PETA said orangutans are extremely intelligent, socially complex animals who share approximately 97 percent of human genes.
“But at the Manila Zoo, Sisi was denied the opportunity to fulfill her most basic needs,” PETA said. “In the wild, these great apes spend their lives swinging and climbing through dense rain forests.”
Orangutans, being highly proficient with tools, use sticks to open thorny fruits or to scratch themselves. They also make giant leaves into umbrellas and ponchos or chew the leaves to make sponges that can soak up rainwater.
Female orangutans live and travel with their offspring – grooming one another, foraging for food, and constructing elaborate nests every night.
Being separated from her Borneo home as a baby, Sisi lived a life of profound deprivation, PETA said.
Since 1981, Sisi had been incarcerated in a concrete-and-steel enclosure that was estimated to be less than 40 square meters and that was littered with plastic bags, bottle caps, and rotting, fly-covered food.
Sisi’s water dish was filthy and often full of garbage, PETA said. “Although orangutans ordinarily shun human contact, Sisi was continually on display in a cage that was surrounded by noisy souvenir stands and food vendors,” PETA said.
The orangutan was allegedly provided with nothing to hold her interest, help her pass the time, or stimulate her keen senses. And though orangutans are the world’s largest tree-dwelling animals, “Sisi spent her life on the ground or clinging to cage bars,” PETA further said.
During the 28 years that Sisi spent languishing at the Manila Zoo, visitors learned nothing about how orangutans really behave or how close the species is to extinction, according to PETA.
“No educational information about Sisi or anything about her species’ endangered status was posted outside her cage. Even if the zoo had made an attempt to provide information about Sisi, she was so far removed from everything that is important to orangutans that visitors would have still been left with a completely inaccurate impression,” PETA said.
PETA likewise stressed its concern for the well-being of the other animals who face the hardships of life at the Manila Zoo.
PETA said in their natural habitats, many of the species kept at the zoo would roam territories that span hundreds of kilometers, while the entire Manila Zoo measures only 0.055 square kilometers.
Tigers, who love to swim, are provided with nothing more than a puddle at the zoo, and even the zoo’s reptiles are kept in cages so small that they can’t lie down properly, PETA said.
Even the biggest zoos fail to provide the space, exercise, privacy, and mental stimulation that animals require, and they do almost nothing to fulfill their other complex needs, they also said.
In the wild, many animals spend their entire lives with close-knit families, but in zoos, animals are typically separated from their families when they are babies.
“They are sentenced to lifetimes of boredom, loneliness, and abuse. As a result, many animals at the Manila Zoo have been observed exhibiting neurotic behavior, such as constant pacing, swaying, and walking in small circles,” PETA claimed.
Because of a lack of funding and resources, the zoo’s infrastructure has disintegrated, and conditions for animals have grown steadily worse.
Sisi’s death, reportedly from cancer, is just one indication of how of animals at the Manila Zoo have been left in deteriorating health without proper veterinary care, the group alleged.
PETA reported that the zoo has also housed ostriches with no feathers, one ostrich with a severely abscessed eye, and rabbits who have died from heatstroke.
“One animal at the Manila Zoo whose condition is of particular concern is Mali, the zoo’s only elephant. Just as Sisi did, Mali spends her days alone in a barren enclosure, which provides her with no opportunity to engage in any of the activities that elephants require for their physical, mental, and emotional health,” PETA said, urging the Manila Zoo to allow Mali to be retired to a sanctuary immediately.
A recent study published in the journal Science found that elephants in zoos, despite facing no predators, lived only half as long as elephants who lived in more natural habitats, PETA cited.
PETA said Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim had recently announced plans to acquire more animals for the Manila Zoo.
PETA Asia-Pacific joined nine other Philippines-based animal protection groups in signing a petition urging Lim to abandon these plans.
PETA believes that instead of incarcerating more animals, the zoo should shut its doors for good.
“The best way to help wild animals is to protect their native habitats, not to put more of them behind bars,” says PETA Director Jason Baker.
“Sisi’s sad life and lonely death underscore the urgency of sending Mali and the other animals at the Manila Zoo to sanctuaries and closing the decrepit facility once and for all,” Baker added.