Kangaroo cruelly stoned to death by sick visitors at Chinese zoo

Not everyone agrees with the very existence of zoos. Supporters say they allow many more people to see, and thus better appreciate and wish to protect, wildlife, while opponents say that it’s cruel to keep what should be a wild and free creature in an enclosure, however luxurious.

But few would argue that most zoos in western world do not strive to create comfortable enclosures for their animals, and that the humans who visit them do not largely behave respectfully and admiringly. Not so, sadly, in China, where a kangaroo has reportedly been killed and another one injured after visitors threw bricks or rocks at the marsupials in an attempt to make them ‘hop’.

China’s Global Times newspaper reported that the 12-year-old female kangaroo died in March after being struck multiple times by “stupid tourists throwing sharp rocks” that shattered her left toe and ruptured her kidney. Another kangaroo, a five-year-old male, was left with scratches after also being hit by the missiles. 

Workers at the Fuzhou Zoo in the Fujian province told the Community party-run newspaper that “they have for years been trying to stop tourists from throwing rocks in order to get kangaroos to hop around” and that “despite efforts to remove stones in the area and surveillance cameras at the park, the problem still persists”.

“These adults see a kangaroo sleeping and go pick up rocks to hit it with,” said a zookeeper with the surname Zhang told the Global Times. “We’ve cleared out all the rocks from the habitat area, and they just go look for them elsewhere.”

Chinese media outlets ran images of the bloodied, apparently bloated, body of the kangaroo lying in its enclosure and also in a packing crate with its head covered.

The roos aren’t the only animals at the zoo to suffer at the hands of visitors, however, with the black bears and monkeys reportedly becoming sick after visitors fed them inappropriate foods such as cakes. As the South China Morning Post noted in its report on the kangaroo’s death, zoos are only lightly regulated in China and the captive animals are often kept in abysmal conditions and tormented by visitors, or allowed to escape only to be killed by authorities.

On June 2017 people who had bought shares in a Chinese zoo placed a live donkey into a tiger enclosure, allowing it to be ripped apart in front of visitors, as part of a protest over what the shareholders said were missing zoo profits.

Some human visitors to zoos in China fare no better, with a number of people having been killed by big cats and even a walrus at Chinese zoos in recent years. There often only easily penetrated barriers separating humans and animals. 

On the flip side, however, in September infuriated Chinese social media users helped Australian authorities catch a Chinese man who posted a video of himself killing a kangaroo in Australia by slashing its throat. Having seen a video of the killing online, Chinese internet users identified the man, found his Melbourne address, and reported him to environmental protection officers, leading to his arrest.

Do you think countries that don’t regulate their zoos should be permitted to import animals? Do you support the existence of zoos, or believe them to be cruel?