Kunming Zoo （Northeast Gate） — Attraction in Kunming

A PRISON FOR ANIMALS

I went because I wanted to check upon the rumors of inappropriate captive animal conditions in Chinese zoos. The visit exceeded my expectations – unfortunately. The bad part was not only the animal s conditions – I was similarly disgusted by the inappropriate behavior of Chinese visitors. This is what I observed: Cages old, rusty and dirty Cages lack plants or any kind of vegetation Animals look sad, bored, and unhealthy Horses have bloody spots on legs and seem to be mentally broken and distorted as they have to perform as circus animals Horses are even chained in their enclosures (cages just as big as they are themselves) Open air monkey cage was full of garbage accessible to the animals Whole zoo area is equipped with speakers yelling advertisement for animal shows – the noise is highly disturbing and stressful for the animals (and even myself as a visitor!!) Uneducated Chinese visitors knock on cages in order to wake up resting animals or they throw food into their enclosures (although it says not to do so on posters) The zoo includes a circus! A zoo isn’t a playground and animals are no actors!! The animals there suffer as circus animals, its clearly visible in the horse training area – these animals are DEPRESSED Kunming zoo is a 100+% failure of the zoo idea. It was created with the maximum level of DISRESPECT for ANIMALS. Chinese visitors do not seem to understand that the animals live under horrible and at most unnatural conditions. They perceive the animals as toys and think its funny what they see. This is the action I took: I even went up to the Kunming zoo management office and left my feedback regarding the poor conditions of animals and their enclosures. The zoo manager was very nice and understood my concern. He even agreed with my opinion. He admitted that the animals live under deprived conditions but the government is not willing to spend more money on the zoo. I told him that I hope for better conditions for the animals in the future and that I will tell my friends and family and social networks about my unpleasant Kunming zoo experience. I can only recommend to other visitors to speak up for the animals at the zoo management level. The more people do so, the higher is the chance that this will result in a positive effect…one day…. With Kunming Zoo, the Chinese government fails to educate its people towards proper animal welfare and respect - a basic knowledge people should have in the 21st century. No so in China. The Chinese government should be ashamed about the waste of money for the erection of e.g. luxury shopping malls on the one hand, but the refusal/restriction of governmental funding for the improvement of zoos like that to provide proper life quality for these zoo animals. This country actively keeps its people uneducated about how to treat animals right. Shame on you!! Do your homework if you want to keep pretending you can keep up with the...

The entrance fee is 20.00, and the place is within the general park itself, which is more of an attraction to be honest as the elevated central area has commanding views of the city scape and is pleasant and well landscaped. Weirdly a detestable international fast food outlet has been plonked within the complex architecturally uncomplimentary to its surrounds.

The zoo itself is very bad indeed. It looks abandoned and frankly is the worst thing I've seen in China thus far, and an insult to Kunming which is a very nice city. The zoo exhibits are largely abandoned for any animal of interest. The pandas don't exist, the giraffes don't exist, and I saw no big cats (though they have sizable compounds for all). There are a lot of peacocks, a lot of monkeys and a sprinkling of other animals of less interest to most. The aviary is basically abandoned and some birds that remain in glass containment are very poorly treated with the cages remaining uncleaned for a very long time indeed. The elephant enclosure is brutally cruel and the behaviour of some people towards the animals is very bad by Western standards. I would recommend the compound for the reptile exhibit and the park views. There were restaurants on site too should you need your own feed. 2/5 for the Zoo...

A serious oversight by zoo management led to a cat being housed in the monkey enclosure. The monkey exhibited aggressive behavior towards the cat, and zoo staff failed to address the situation. A concerned visitor's desire to intervene underscores the gravity of this incident. We urge all visitors to report any instances of animal...