TRAGIC FATE OF ANIMALS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5330, 17 February 1947, Page 7

TRAGIC FATE OF ANIMALS

BERLINS FAMOUS ZOO. A few hungry Berlin food scavengers, more daring thjan most of their fellows, are raiding what remains of the great Berlin Zoo to reinforce their larders. Bombing* raids destroyed more than 2500 of the animals at the zoo, and fighting before the fall of the city killed 500 more. Now raids by the Germans themselves are likely to wipe out the 250 animals that remain. The zoo is situated near the Tiergarten, in the heart of the city — a high priority target for R.A.F. Bomber Command. It was popnded nigh^ after night in the Allied raids. Some of the more dangerous animals had to be destroyed by the zoo authorities in case they should escape. Others v/ere placed for safety in pits. The safety precautions were useless. Of the nine elephants, eight were killed in the course of a nionth's raids.

Tbere was more slaughter when the Russians began to blast their way through the city at the end of the war. A regiment of Wehrmacht infantry chose the zoo for a last desperate stand. They dug fox-holes and waited for the oncoming Russians. The Russians pasted the zoo with high-explo-sive shells. Zoo inmates, beasts and men, sulfered terrible losses. Some of the animals died in another way. One .shell bui'st near the sea-lion pit, wounding the solitary occupant. It also gave him access to the wide open shell-swept spaces. The enraged animal left its .pool and played havoc among a group of Wlehrmacht soldiers entrenched nearby. The unfortunate soldiers were driven from their shelter into the giunfire of the Russian snipers. Another detachment of 'Germans uneasily eyed their neighbours — two huge gorillas. They came to a very quick decision, and the ill-fated zoo lost two more of its most valuable possessions. Now night marauders are killing and stealing the animals that remain. Victims have included a porcupine (for soup), a cassowary (for Christmas dinner), a white rat (for, what ? ), and even a mangy old goat. The director of the zoo is a woman, Dr. Katherine Heinroth. She has Succeeded in ohtaining from the Allied Control authorities permission to get special rations to feed her animals. The one elephant that ren^ains gets 1001b of fodder a day from the city government, and three lions which have been brought back from the country, where they were removed during 1 the' blitz, receive 201b of horseflesh a ( day. A milch cow and a vegetable j garden in the zoo provide food for j most of the other animals, but thieves j are ruining the garden. The Allied authorities are not allowing additions to the zoo, .but the zoo

/ is doing its best i;o become again its proud self of pre-war days. Katherine Heinroth's favourite charge is a baby zehra — the prize baby of 1046.