Rabat- A zoological park is one of the most popular sites frequented by Moroccans on weekends and holidays. Families head towards the nearest zoo to strengthen their ties with nature. However, this particular Casablanca zoo has become a hotbed of illegal activities other than just exhibiting and breeding animals.
Ain Sebaa Zoo in Casablanca is currently in crisis. Animals are dying from hunger, and retired security guards have built slums that are expanding onto the zoo’s grounds. In addition, the zoo’s grounds have become a hot spot for late night sexual encounters.
Every day, visitors bring bread and leftovers to feed the animals who are starving in their cages. Bears fight over the pieces of dry bread that visitors throw at them from time to time. Monkeys dine on carrots and lions patiently wait for a monkey to die in order to be served as a meal to them.
While Casablanca’s city council has an annual budget of 1 million MAD just for the food of animals, but it seems that this money is not spent on those creatures. The zoo contains about 600 types of animals, and the budget is not sufficient to fully cover the needs of the zoo.
Civil society does not seem to react and the only person who dared to reveal information about the zoo preferred to remain anonymous. Known only as an activist in Casablanca, he disclosed to Al-Akhbar that, “In the zoo, there is a café where all sorts of drugs are being smoked and used. It is a club of former prisoners.”
Edited by Elisabeth Myers