The Cuban people aren’t the only ones starving in Cuba, zoo animals are also feeling the misery of the communist Castro dictatorship’s failed socialist economic policies. In the city of Camagüey, the lack of food and supplies have forced the caretakers of the local zoo to take drastic measures.
Via Diario de Cuba (my translation):
The Camagüey Zoo is an urban park owned by the Cuban Zoos Company. Located at the confluence of the Hatibonico and Juan del Toro rivers, it houses around 400 animal specimens, including carnivores, rodents, reptiles, and birds, and it even had a small aquarium.
The complex, one of Cuba’s most attractive, features a collection of species such as antelopes, zebras, jackals, spotted hyenas, monkeys, flamingos, crocodiles, and lions, the crown jewel of any respectable zoo.
However, the Camagüey zoo has not escaped the impacts of the deep socioeconomic crisis affecting Cuba. Onel, one of the workers, explained that “with the country’s economic restructuring, the zoo went from being a budgeted unit to self-financing, which is very difficult at a time when food is scarce for people.”
“To make matters worse, when the lion tamer retired, the performing arts company stopped funding us for the animals’ food and we found ourselves without food for them, to the point that it was decided to put down three of the oldest lions to preserve the rest of the pride. It was instructed to say they died from illness, but the truth is they were put down,” he said.
“Another decision made was to sell some animals to companies,” added Onel. “For example, a lion cub was sold for 5,000 pesos to a military company that has a small zoo, and peccaries were also sold. All sales were to companies. Animals have never been sold to individuals,” he concluded.
Julia, another zoo worker, reported that “as part of the self-financing scheme,” there is a small restaurant offering traditional Cuban food, where “exotic dishes like crocodile stew are offered at 650 pesos for a portion of 290 grams.”
Welcome to the wild animal kingdom of socialism.