SUPPORTIVE MALAYSIANS ARE NEEDED TO SAFE OUR BELOVED ANIMALS
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| Source: malaysikini |
When I was a kid, once
a year my family took me and my siblings to Zoo Negara. Zoo Negara was the most
exciting place to be with the animals that I could gaze at, which before, I am
able to watch only on television. That was not only the place that I can see
the different animals, but also I can learn new things about other species.
Zoo Negara is home to
5137 animals of 476 different species. Over the years, the zoo has transformed
itself into an open concept zoo with over 90% of its animals kept in spacious
exhibits with landscape befitting its nature.
But nowadays, Zoo
Negara is begging people to visit their place because they are lacking with visitors
and it is affecting the zoo’s ability to take care of our beloved animals. They
also need sponsors from NGOs, private companies and also student’s volunteers
to help them find pocket money especially for the Malayan tigers and in order
to cover the operation cost and expansion of the national zoo.
“It costs RM100 a day
to feed the Malayan tigers while the Bengal ones eat 10kg of meat, or RM200
worth, a day. This boils down to RM40, 000 per tiger a year, including their
medicine. Total up the cost for zookeepers, expenses, we need about RM50, 000 a
year.
We have been spending
RM1 million to RM1.2 million a month for the last three years and we need to
have at least 500,000 visitors to break even from ticket sales.” Said by the
Zoo Negara Malaysia deputy president Rosly @ Rahmat Ahmat Lana according to
World of Buzz.
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| Source: Al Jazeera |
He, however said the
zoo looked forward to meeting Water, Land and Natural Resouces Minister Dr. A
Xavier Jayakumar, who is expected to open their new tiger “immersion centre”,
complete with an elevated passageway that the ministry funded.
“We will be inviting
Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Gombak member of parliament Datuk
Azmin Ali, who is economic affairs minister.”
“We will be sitting
down with the government to chart the way ahead for Zoo Negara as a
conservation, education and research facility, as well as a playing the role as
a stakeholder in drafting policies for conservation, zoos and captive breeding
as a whole.” According to New Straits Times.
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| Source: FMT |
After this issue spread
in the social media, I just scrolled the comment box in Facebook to see what
the Malaysian’s reaction about this issue are.
Many of them are
complaining about the entrance fees because it is so freaking expensive for
them to enjoy there. Based on what I found, updated national zoo fees is about
to high. For the Malaysian citizen, adult price is about RM45.00 per person, RM18.00
for (3 to 12 years old kids) and lastly for the senior citizen is about RM
23.00 each.
According to this price
rate, visitors are not afford to pay such amount because they will not get
anything back with that amount of money and also because of highest cost of
life with our poor economist. High hopes to getting more fun and worth it as to
enjoy the experience.
However, one of the
Facebook user said that if national zoo reduce the amount of entrance fees, he
will bring his children more often.
Hence, people are also
giving opinion to just remove all the animals to the Taiping Zoo and make it the
national zoo. The factors of that statement which is the area of the zoo is
bigger than the Zoo Negara here. Also, comparing the entrance fees with the
others zoos. It is way cheaper and also worth it.
Besides that, with all
the negative assumption towards national zoo, one of netizen, named “Eros”
shared a tweet about his wonderful experience in Zoo Negara.
“I really encourage you
guys to volunteer for Zoo Negara. The experience I had was amazing and
sometimes, scary” said Eros. He also give us the way of how we can get a nice
entrance fees with joining the volunteer programme organized by national zoo.
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| Source: OhBulan |
Meanwhile, after Eros
shared his tweet on Twitter, netizens also give a good feedback about this
volunteer programme and also shared their own pictures during the programme. In
fact, people encouraged that such activities can be disseminated and young people
are aware to keep their beloved animals there.
In my opinion, Zoo
Negara has to promote their volunteer programme to all students and to the public.
Through this such activities, I think many of us are very wanted to help and
get a new experience. There are many advantages that we will get in the
programme based on what netizens said, that is after we finished the programme,
we will receive a certificate of appreciation from Zoo Negara. Then, we also
can get free souvenir and undoubtedly, the staff there are very nice and
cheerful.
So what can we do as Malaysians?
We have to produce effort to visit those animals and we should try our best to
help in any way possible, either by donation or volunteering to take care of
the animals in the zoo.
References:
1.
Zoo Negara Malaysia. About us. Retrieved
from https://www.zoonegaramalaysia.my/zoo.html
2.
May 18, 2019. Alief Esmail. Zoo Negara
Desperately Needs More Visitors to Survive. Retrieved from
3.
May 17, 2019. Veena Babulal. Zoo Negara
desperately needs you to drop by. Retrieved from https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/05/489195/zoo-negara-desperately-needs-you-drop
4.
May 21, 2019. Anne Dorall. Roaring
support for Zoo Negara. Retrieved from https://www.therakyatpost.com/2019/05/21/roaring-support-for-zoo-negara/
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