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Two of Saddam Hussein's leopards stare out glumly from a cage surrounded by netting on the grounds of the presidential palace in the heart of Baghdad. Barely able to rise when visitors approach, the animals look paralyzed by bitter hunger and the blazing heat as they lie stricken in the shade. Their legs tremble and they need several tries to stand upright. They advance slowly, almost dragging themselves toward the bars of the cage, their eyes vacant. In a distant corner of the enclosure, a lion, lioness and three cubs huddle together, looking exhausted and parched. The entire family has been robbed of strength and the cubs curl up close to their mother. The stench is overwhelming. "There is also a brown bear but he's not out today," says Second Lieutenant Karl Hoempler of the HHC, 4-64 Armor Battalion, whose unit is closest to the palace zoo. "No one dares to enter because we don't know how to treat these animals. The veterinary unit isn't here and we don't know how to feed them. "We've been giving them some rations or whatever we can find," he said, showing the devoured pouches. The portions are desperately insufficient as an adult lion should eat an average of eight kilograms (18 pounds) of meat each day. When Saddam still reigned here at the palace, each consumed the meat of two donkeys per day. A donkey cost 8,000 dinars (four dollars), a monthly salary in Iraq, but still cheaper than beef. Sheep are locked up in a barn and one of them lies dead with flies swarming around its head. Three German shepherds turn to the gate and bark when soldiers approach. "We haven't eaten meat since we left for the war so how can we feed them?" the lieutenant asks. The people charged with caring for the animals used to live next door. Jackets are strewn on the bed, notebooks and Arabic manuals on animals litter the floor, as if the minders had left in a hurry. These animals were the passion of Uday, Saddam's elder son. Uday had made a personal donation of two tigers and five lions to the Baghdad public zoo, which has since been completely destroyed after serving as a battlefield in US troops' struggle to take the capital last week. Even before the war began March 20, the zoo had suffered under UN sanctions slapped on Iraq after it invaded Kuwait in 1990 and was not only short of proper food, but also of vaccines and medicine. The Iraqi army had stored pieces of artillery at the park, which were pulverized by US forces. Today, Americans soldiers patrol the alleyways not far from two terrified camels. They move forward gingerly, avoiding the armed men as they begin to munch on tree leaves. All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Quick Links   Nov 02, 2006 |
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