Malnourished Ruperta The Elephant In Venezuelan Zoo

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Despite the fact that the elephant Ruperta shows that she is suffering from an acute case of malnutrition, the directors of the Caricuao Zoo, in Venezuela, rejected the donations to feed her that several volunteers have tried to send her. This has worried and enraged wildlife lovers in there.

As reported by the newspaper El Universal, Ruperta suffers from diarrhea and dehydration after spending several days eating only pumpkin. Due to that, the pachyderm has lost two tons of weight, data that was verified by community environmentalists and veterinary experts, as well as by some employees of INPARQUES (the National Institute of Parks of Venezuela).

The commander of the Forest Firefighters of that entity, Miguel Matani, corroborated 70 percent of the clinical picture that the neighbors and environmentalists exposed, so that dozens of volunteers gathered donations to feed the elephant, something that was not well received by the zoo authorities.

"We have enough food and the animals in Caricuao are well fed," said Erick Lenarduzzi, coordinator of that zoo, while saying that he did not accept these foods due to "sanitary regulations."

But Matani, of the Forest Fire Department, revealed that when they came to his aid, the animal "lasted three hours on the ground." "He has a loss of muscle mass. If you have a diarrheal picture, it does not cause you to eat or drink water. He's eating only carrots as a special diet and some grass (the one that was donated the day before) for seven days, "he said. "The same antibiotics were given preventively. He has weight lost due to his age."

Neighbors, connoisseurs of the subject and personalities of the country are furious because they consider that not only this elephant but all the animals in that zoo are being victims of the food crisis that Venezuela is facing. Ruperta is 46 years old and in captivity elephants can live up to 65 or 70 years.