Baghdad Zoo

The Baghdad Zoo is a zoo located in Baghdad, Iraq, in the Al Zawraa Gardens area, which also includes the Zawraa Amusement Park and Zawraa Tower. It once housed 650 animals.

History

The Baghdad Zoo was built in 1971 under Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr.

The facilities were insufficient, with small confinement spaces considered inhumane. After the first Gulf War, Iraq's zoos suffered from the United Nations Iraq sanctions, limited particular foods, medicines, and vaccines.

Saddam Hussein closed the zoo for renovations in the spring of 2002, but instead turned it into a quasi-military base.

2003 invasion

The zoo was later ravaged during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. For their own safety, zoo workers suspended feeding the animals in early April 2003, when Fedayeen Saddam troops took up defensive positions around the zoo as U.S. forces began the battle of Baghdad. Out of the original 650 to 700 animals in the Baghdad Zoo only 35 had survived to the eights day after the invasion, and these tended to be some of the larger animals. cite web
url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/thechoice/pip/sszoc/
title="The Choice", featuring Lawrence Anthony
publisher=BBC radio 4
date=2007-09-04|accessdate = 2007-09-04]

Several lions escaped from the abandoned zoo, and were rounded up by American soldiers in armored fighting vehicles. Three that would not return to their cages were shot by the soldiers. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2966107.stm] . Comics author Brian K. Vaughan wrote the fictionalized graphic novel "Pride of Baghdad" based on the lions, giving each speech and a personality.

During the absence of zoo staff and officials, the zoo suffered from severe looting. Cages were torn open by thieves who released or took hundreds of animals and birds. Zoo staff claimed most of the birds and game animals were taken for food as pre-war food shortages in Baghdad were exacerbated by the invasion. The remaining animals were found in critical condition, dying of thirst and starving in their cages, including Mandor, a 20-year-old Siberian tiger that was the personal property of Uday Hussein, and Saida, a blind brown bear. Many animals were found roaming the zoo grounds. In mid-April 2003 South African conservationist Lawrence Anthony from the Thula Thula Game Reserve in Zululand, traveled in a hired car with two assistants from Kuwait to bring relief to the Baghdad Zoo. Working with the Baghdad Zoo directors Dr. Adel Salman Mousa and Dr. Husham Mohamed Hussan and a few returning staff they began caring for and feeding the remaining animals, restoring basic hygiene standards, and stabilizing the situation. Anthony's journey to the zoo was delayed by safety and bureaucracy issues in the chaos of the war, and he arrived at the zoo 8 days after the invasion started to rescue the surviving animals.

U.S. Army Captain William Sumner of the 354th Civil Affairs Brigade was seconded to the zoo and joined the team improving security and stemming the tide of looters. Iraqi veteran Farah Murrani joined the rescue effort with Brendan Whittington-Jones of the Thula Thula game reserve. At various times they were joined by other conservation organizations including Wildaid, Care for the Wild, and IFAW.

Anthony was appointed zoo administrator by the U.S. Army and tasked with bringing the zoo back to normal. After the 2003 invasion he was the first civilian to gain entry to Iraq. There are now more than 80 animals at the zoo, the balance of which were rescued from menageries at the Hussein family palaces and horrific private zoos around Baghdad during the ongoing conflict, including lions, tigers, brown bears, wolves, foxes, jackals, camels, ostrich, badgers, and some primates.

The zoo and surrounding park reopened to the public on July 20 2003, following improvements and renovations by US Army engineers and featured 86 animals, including all 19 surviving lions.

Whittington-Jones and Murrani remained at the zoo for a further year during which time they also found homes in the US for over 30 Baghdad street dogs.

The story of the rescue of the Baghdad zoo is recounted in the book Babylon's Ark by authors Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence. [cite book
last = Anthony
first = Lawrence
authorlink =
coauthors = Spence Grayham
title = Babylon's Ark; The Incredible Wartime Rescue of the Baghdad Zoo
publisher = Thomas Dunne Books
date = 2007-06-03
location =
pages =
url =
doi =
isbn = 0312358326]

2003 incident

On September 18 2003, a group of U.S. Army Reserve soldiers and Iraqi police held a party in the zoo after it had closed. Specialist Keith Mitchell of the 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion, had his right arm severely mauled by an endangered male Bengal tiger; a soldier, seeing the attack, shot and killed the caged animal. The "Wall Street Journal" described various accounts of the incident: [http://agonist.org/stonehouse/20060303/remember_the_drunken_soldier_who_got_bitten_by_the_tiger_in_baghdad_zoo]

The initial reports of drunkenness by the soldiers led to public condemnation; the "New Yorker" wrote that the shooting of the tiger was emblematic of the "stupidity and carelessness" of the Iraq War.

A military report in 2004 concluded that Mitchell was not drunk and his presence at the zoo was part of an authorized unit barbecue. Mitchell admitted drinking beer the night of the party (Mitchell said one beer, a witness said three), and was found in violation of an Army order against consuming alcohol in Iraq. Still, after a three-month probationary period, his reduction in rank was reversed. Mitchell remained on active duty but most of his time was spent in occupational therapy and in surgery, and he eventually received a medical discharge. [http://agonist.org/stonehouse/20060303/remember_the_drunken_soldier_who_got_bitten_by_the_tiger_in_baghdad_zoo]

Sgt. Keith Mitchell was honorably and medically discharged from the U. S. Army on November 16 2006 when he returned home to Charlotte, NC to be with his wife and young daughter, Mary. He resided at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital at Building 18 for the year and a half before his discharge. He had, in all, 34 surgeries to re-attach his arm that gave him mobility. In fact, he opted for experimental surgery that took the push-up muscle in his back along with a flap of skin that was then transplanted to the missing biceps muscle in his arm. This was the first surgery of its kind. This surgery was very successful and an occupational therapy manual was written as a guide to therapy for these types of surgeries; and Keith, along with a few Marines whose legs were saved by this surgery, were flown to Chicago, IL in August 2005 to be presented by their doctors to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. [http://www.plasticsurgery.org/media/press_releases/PS-2005-Overall.cfm]

While at Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, congestive heart failure and myriad of other things either as a result of the trauma from the attack, the numerous surgeries he endured or from his time in Iraq. He died on August 14 2007 [http://www.mem.com/Story.aspx?ID=2002603] from complications of hyperglycemia from his diabetes and was laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery on September 18 2007. [http://photojournalismstock.com/Mitchell/] He left behind his wife of 10 years and 2 year old daughter, Mary Teleia.

References

External links

* [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/04/0418_030418_baghdadzoo.html National Geographic]

* [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312358326/ Lawrence Anthony's account of zoo rescue]