As A Result Of COVID-19, Zoo In Ukraine Hopes For Citizen Donations

Kiev Zoo (Photo: Anastasia Dulgier, Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The COVID-19 outbreak in Ukraine has left a zoo in the village of Demydiv, Kiev experiencing a financial crisis. How not, the option to close the area or lockdown taken by the owner of the policy caused the zoo to run out of funds and panic because it could not cover the bill.

Launching Reuters, the financial crisis made the zoo, which actually had 70 officers, was only able to maintain 20 officers, even with a minimum wage.

On that basis, Mykhailo Pinchuk Zoo officials invited Ukrainians to donate to help maintain the existence of the home of 400 animals during the pandemic. "In fact, there are animals that eat more than 100 kilos of food every day and we spend 500,000 hryvnia (equivalent to Rp275 million) just to feed them each month," he said.

Fortunately, as a tactic of being thrifty, zookeepers began adjusting the feed for the animals. For example, tigers, which usually eat beef or pork, have begun to be replaced with chicken. Likewise, monkeys who are used to eating mangoes or pineapples are replaced with apples.

The Grief of a Lonely Animal

Not only the matter of food, zoo officials also mess around with lonely animals. This is because the existing animals have become accustomed to the presence of many humans, starting to feel lonely because there are no more voices of visitors to be heard. Because it was so quiet, officers often found several orangutans crying in their cages. For that, as much as possible Pinchuk and other officers came to the animal sheds one by one to just say hello.

"In fact, the animals rushed over when I walked past their pen. Then, they rushed to look through the holes in the fence to see who was coming, and asked you to come over and feed them," said Pinchuk.

"They don't understand what's going on, because the situation has changed. It's different from before when they used to enjoy being together with people visiting the zoo," he added.