Kuwait Zoo, Scene of Iraqi Cruelty, Reopens

Kuwait’s zoo reopened Thursday, restocked and repaired more than two years after most of its animals starved to death in their cages during the Persian Gulf War.

Only 35 of a prewar complement of 735 creatures survived the seven-month Iraqi occupation of the emirate. The rest died of neglect and hunger or were shot, stolen or fed to lions by Iraqi occupation troops for amusement, zoo officials said.

Zoo Director Mousa Khashti paid tribute to Kuwaitis who hid some animals, including a bear, in their homes to save them from death or abuse.

“The Iraqis brought us back to point zero,” he told an opening ceremony. “They destroyed everything and looted all the assets of the zoo. We had to start all over again.”

Now, healthy animals flown in from Asia and Africa pace and climb inside neatly groomed enclosures. Under a $1.6-million restoration, the 25-year-old zoo now has 805 creatures, including new leopards, African lions, pumas, water buffalo and Bengal tigers.

Khashti and the zoo chairman, Fahd Hasawi, thanked the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Canada, Britain and the United States for donating animals or providing assistance for the restoration.

Khashti said that during the occupation, animal-lovers “searched everywhere for food for these poor creatures. They tricked the Iraqis by preserving the animals in their homes. . . .”

Reporters found a scene of neglect and starvation when they inspected the 1.9-million-square-foot zoo in the city’s southern suburbs days after Iraqi troops were ejected in February, 1991, by a U.S.-led military alliance.

Those creatures still alive were emaciated, many of them unconscious. Animal skeletons and carcasses were strewn about.

Fahd Ibrahim kept a female black bear in the back yard of his home during the occupation and gave it old car tires to play with and scraps of food to eat. The animal escaped from the zoo when the Iraqis took it over and wandered hungry and exhausted into his street.

It has been returned to the zoo and the mate it left behind.