Whats Killing the Animals at Ukraines Biggest Zoo?
Samka the rhino looks sad. When her longtime companion Boy the elephant died in April, she watched over his body for an entire day until it was taken away. Today the elephant’s pen sits empty. Boy is just one of several animals at Kiev Zoo including a camel, a bison and a zebra that have died in recent months, some under mysterious circumstances. As the city carries out an official investigation, the deaths have prompted outrage and denial, with activists accusing the zoo of negligence and corruption and authorities pointing to an anonymous killer as the culprit. Boy’s death has brought fresh attention to a scandal that has been running for months. Serhiy Hryhoryev, a former zoo worker who runs a site campaigning for the rights of the zoo’s animals, says the Indian elephant was underfed, kept in poor conditions and stressed by constant changes to the staff of handlers. “By the end, you could see his ribs,” says Hryhoryev. (See the top 10 militant animals.) According to animal-rights ac
