Starving Bears At Zoo Begging For Food Sparks Outrage

#1 The Truth About Zoos Revealed In Indonesia

There’s the dark underbelly of zoos, the side of these institutions that you’ll never see in a pamphlet or on a website. Places that look more gray and hopeless than prisons, where animals are kept starved and degraded in a state of bondage for profit and amusement.

Sun bears are native to northern parts of Indonesia, and southeast Asia and naturally feed on a diet of honey, fruit, and insects. They are not easily angered but protective of their territory and loved ones. A normal bear in the wild weighs around 375 pounds. Sun bears have been classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

#2 The Sun Bears Exhibit

This is what the Sun Bears looked like one month after they arrived at the Bandung Zoo in West Java, Indonesia. At the time there was very little grass and one tree, and the cement the bears were isolated to was surrounded by water. They were healthy and about average in size.

#3 The Bears Are Being Starved To Death

Today the bears are mistreated and so hungry they've taken to begging visitors for food and eating their own feces. They have been captured on video by animal rights activists three different times over the last four months, at times begging for food and other times eating their own feces and sitting isolated in a corner.

Footage shot by the Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group showed several emaciated bears at a zoo in the Indonesian city of Bandung.

#4 They Learned To Beg For Junk Food To Survive

While bears in enclosures very rarely beg for food, you can see the bears rushing for pieces of crackers thrown in, and begging visitors for more. Normally they would not approach humans, especially when it meant they had to leave their caged habitats to do so.

#5 One Of The World's Worst Zoos

"The bears are kept in a concrete cage and no grass. There is nothing natural, it is all very cruel", Marison Guciano, senior investigator of the Scorpion Foundation said. "It is one of the worst zoos in all of Indonesia. Maybe it would be best if this place was closed down now before more animals die a painful and avoidable death."

Stating that the zoo in West Java is one of the worst means nothing since the country has many zoos that are in disrepair and have animals dying from diseases and malnutrition. The Bandung zoo was also implicated in an alleged case of neglect last year when its endangered Sumatran elephant died after it fell ill. Another zoo in the city of Surabaya having been dubbed the "Zoo of Death" after 60 animals died in 2016.

#6 Visitors Want The Zoo Shut Down

Visitors say the zoo has rusty cages, dirty pens, and really neglected animals. Some of them are very thin. "Hell on earth for all these poor animals" Reviews of the zoo on crowd-sourced travel tips website Trip Advisor are typically scathing, with numerous commenters urging people not to visit the zoo, and to shut it down.

"The animals are dying of neglect," wrote one commenter in November of 2016. "Visitors leave feeling sad because they are on display as dying animals right in front of our eyes." However, the government has no jurisdiction regarding closing down a private zoo or farm.

#7 Zoo Operator Claims Animals Are Fed And Healthy

Bandung Zoo spokesman Sudaryo dismissed the issue as an “old case”. He stated that the bears were regularly fed and that the zoo gives regular health checks. “We provide enough food. People say they are thin, but does that mean they are not healthy and they are not eating?” he said, adding that the bears were begging “because there are people who throw food at them”, and that the zoo has told visitors to stop this practice.

The bears are extremely thin and very hungry. Appalled visitors give them junk food to try and keep them alive. Animal activist Tori Hollingsworth was so outraged by the video she decided to create a petition, which has 12,000 signatures so far, demanding the zoo be closed. She says, "these bears don't normally eat anything bur fruit and leaves and grass. They are eating anything tossed at them to stay alive."

#9 This Video Will Break Your Heart

The video shows how the sun bears at the Bandung Zoo immediately go after small pieces of food that are tossed in their direction. They stand on their two feet and beg for more in a truly heartbreaking moment.

These beautiful creatures should not be allowed to spend one more day at this terrible facility where they are forced to live between concrete walls, with no proper shelter and absolutely no food and water.