Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
San Diego Union-Tribune
April 26, 2008 By Anna Johnson, Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Families stroll along the park's sidewalks and picnic in the shade as laughing children clamor to see the main attraction – lions once owned by Saddam Hussein's son, Odai.
The Baghdad Zoo, damaged after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, has made a comeback, and thousands of Iraqis are flocking to it.
The zoo, in the sprawling Zawra Park, in the heart of Baghdad just outside the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, has been held up as an example of U.S. reconstruction efforts.
The military brought in new animals, rebuilt damaged exhibits and worked with international zoos and organizations to train the Iraqi zookeepers.
Still, the effects of war are all too plain. Because transporting refrigerated meat is too difficult, donkeys are raised in a fenced-off area, then euthanized and fed to the lions.
The zoo's revival coincides with a reduction in violence across the capital. As a result, Iraqis are increasingly going outside for their leisure time. And in recent months, an average of 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqis visit the zoo each week, paying about 20 cents each for admission, said Adel Salman Mousa, the zoo's director for the past 18 years.
On a recent sunny spring afternoon, Iraqi families packed the zoo. Young couples sat on park benches, teenagers rowed small boats in the zoo's pond, and families took photographs with their cell phone cameras of the bears and other animals behind green cage bars.
Ahmed Noori, a Baghdad dentist who went with his wife and 1-year-old daughter, said the zoo is a getaway for Iraqis who live under the constant threat of bombings and shootings.
“The Iraqi people are tired and need more places to relax like the zoo,” he said. “This is one of the only well-protected areas that is safe.”
Iraqi government guards provide security at the zoo and the park, both of which are overseen by the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
Three months after U.S. forces captured Baghdad, the damaged zoo officially reopened. But violence in the capital made it too dangerous for many Iraqis to visit and for organizations to repair it.
Though there was some effort in the first years of the war to fix up the zoo, the U.S. military began to give the zoo a makeover in January 2007. They brought in new animals, mostly from Turkey or other Iraqi zoos that were shut down or could not afford to keep animals any longer.
Over the past 15 months, the U.S. Army has spent more than $2.15 million on the zoo, supplying it with generators because it receives only two hours of electricity a day, building restrooms, cleaning up trash, repairing cages and providing medicine to its animal clinic.
The U.S. backing was a crucial supplement to the zoo's annual allotment from the city of Baghdad of about $400,000, Mousa said.
The Baghdad Zoo has a wide range of animals: three bears, porcupines, a cheetah, monkeys, a couple of camels, peacocks, several pelicans and ostriches, and the lions, including two cubs and a few adults that once belonged to Odai Hussein.
April 26, 2008 By Anna Johnson, Associated Press
BAGHDAD – Families stroll along the park's sidewalks and picnic in the shade as laughing children clamor to see the main attraction – lions once owned by Saddam Hussein's son, Odai.
The Baghdad Zoo, damaged after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, has made a comeback, and thousands of Iraqis are flocking to it.
The zoo, in the sprawling Zawra Park, in the heart of Baghdad just outside the U.S.-controlled Green Zone, has been held up as an example of U.S. reconstruction efforts.
The military brought in new animals, rebuilt damaged exhibits and worked with international zoos and organizations to train the Iraqi zookeepers.
Still, the effects of war are all too plain. Because transporting refrigerated meat is too difficult, donkeys are raised in a fenced-off area, then euthanized and fed to the lions.
The zoo's revival coincides with a reduction in violence across the capital. As a result, Iraqis are increasingly going outside for their leisure time. And in recent months, an average of 8,000 to 10,000 Iraqis visit the zoo each week, paying about 20 cents each for admission, said Adel Salman Mousa, the zoo's director for the past 18 years.
On a recent sunny spring afternoon, Iraqi families packed the zoo. Young couples sat on park benches, teenagers rowed small boats in the zoo's pond, and families took photographs with their cell phone cameras of the bears and other animals behind green cage bars.
Ahmed Noori, a Baghdad dentist who went with his wife and 1-year-old daughter, said the zoo is a getaway for Iraqis who live under the constant threat of bombings and shootings.
“The Iraqi people are tired and need more places to relax like the zoo,” he said. “This is one of the only well-protected areas that is safe.”
Iraqi government guards provide security at the zoo and the park, both of which are overseen by the 2nd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).
Three months after U.S. forces captured Baghdad, the damaged zoo officially reopened. But violence in the capital made it too dangerous for many Iraqis to visit and for organizations to repair it.
Though there was some effort in the first years of the war to fix up the zoo, the U.S. military began to give the zoo a makeover in January 2007. They brought in new animals, mostly from Turkey or other Iraqi zoos that were shut down or could not afford to keep animals any longer.
Over the past 15 months, the U.S. Army has spent more than $2.15 million on the zoo, supplying it with generators because it receives only two hours of electricity a day, building restrooms, cleaning up trash, repairing cages and providing medicine to its animal clinic.
The U.S. backing was a crucial supplement to the zoo's annual allotment from the city of Baghdad of about $400,000, Mousa said.
The Baghdad Zoo has a wide range of animals: three bears, porcupines, a cheetah, monkeys, a couple of camels, peacocks, several pelicans and ostriches, and the lions, including two cubs and a few adults that once belonged to Odai Hussein.