Luxembourg-based animal welfare activists are outraged by the death of one of the Siberian Tigers at the infamous Melios Zoo, volunteer lawyer Iliana Paliova told CyprusNewsReport.com.
The Green Party contacted the police on Sunday May 6th, who called the zoo’s owner Melios Menelaou. The tiger’s death was confirmed, along with the fact that Menelaou did not declare its death to the authorities until visitors noticed the tiger wasn’t in its cage, said Ms Paliova.
It is not known how long the tiger has been dead or the cause of death. What is known is that the zoo has already burned the animal’s carcass, so it cannot be autopsied, say our sources.
“It’s very important to take urgent actions in order to close down Melios. Tomorrow I will send a file to the EU Commission in order to open an investigation procedure against the Cyprus authorities,” said Ms. Paliova.
A petition with 57,000 signatures has already made the public’s position very clear, but the zoo has remained operational in spite of losing its license in September 2017.
Melios Menelaou has shown himself and his zoo to be a source of trafficking for animals, some of them endangered species, because he is unlicensed. He has ignored all common sense and the laws protecting animals from abuse, and yet his zoo still operating and keeping animals. The similar case that comes to mind from the past was the dolphinarium in Ayia Napa in the late 1980’s which kept dolphins in swimming pools. It was only shut down after many protests and legal actions taken by powerful animal welfare organisations in Cyprus and abroad.
Melios Menelaou is even selling animals as pets, in spite of the fact that he also lost his license as a pet shop.
The spirit of the law when it comes to animal welfare and the protection of endangered species is clear - do not abuse animals. It is animal cruelty to pen up a Siberian Tiger and put it on public show. These tigers are living in small cages where they can’t roam over the distances they usually do. Their usual behaviour is to patrol a large area of territory and they are solitary animals. Being on public show is against their nature, it is threatening and stressful for them. A real animal sanctuary would have large, open spaces for them to live out their lives and in the best case, breed and continue the species. That would take altruism and true dedication to animal welfare, which Melios Zoo does not have. The photo of the lions appearing thin and weak is the least testament to this fact.
The zoo is against the public interest in the protection of the environment and against the laws preventing animal cruelty.
What is the Ministry of Agriculture doing about it? The zoo has been put under surveillance but has not been ordered to shut down. Quite simply, it is running illegally.
What worries this writer is what will happen to the animals after the place does finally stop operating. They need to be taken care of and returned to a sanctuary where they can lead a healthy life. A run-down zoo making a bit of money but probably not enough to cover the costs of feeding and caring for the animals is not the right place for the public or the animals to be.
We called the Agriculture Ministry and they asked us to send an email about the issue because Minister Kadis is with the rest of the Cabinet for a trilateral summit between Greece, Israel and Cyprus. With Minister Kadis’ background as an environmentalist, it’s likely that he will be concerned about the disgraceful situation and take the right measures to close the zoo down in a way that protects the animals’ futures. Melios Menelaou has shown he is unapologetically irresponsible and couldn’t care less about protecting their welfare. So the ball is in the ministry’s court. (Note: in the latest update, the minister confirmed the tiger is dead and called a meeting of all the responsible state officials.)
This publication has made animal welfare a central part of its editorial coverage, because the way animals are treated by society is a reflection of the way society treats its own members. A person who is cruel to animals would be cruel to humans. It’s just wrong and this is not only a moral stance - there are laws against it. With such a dramatic abuse of the laws, the authorities must step up and handle the situation in a way that reassures the public that the taxes it pays are not going to waste. The European Commission would have ample cause to sue Cyprus for abusing environmental and animal protection laws, and the fines would have to be paid by the public.
For compassion’s sake, for the law’s sake, for the public interest, we ask Minister Kadis to move quickly and surely to close down this operation and rescue the animals from a miserable and short life at Melios Zoo.
