Sumatran tiger rescued from ‘zoo of death’ dies

SURABAYA – Melani, a rare Sumatran tiger that was rescued from Indonesia’s “zoo of death” in Surabaya has died. The rare Sumatran tigress suffered from illness and malnutrition at the enclosure and was relocated to a wildlife park near Jakarta for rehabilitation last year.

Australian charity Cee4life, drew the world’s attention to Melani’s story and the plight of animals at the zoo, announced the death on Facebook.

The group’s director Ms Sybelle Foxcroft wrote on Sunday (Aug 31): “It is with great sorrow and heartbreak that I have to tell you that our dear beloved Melani has passed on. The day before she died she was her happy and beautiful self.”

“She closed her eyes that last night with one of her keepers, she was content and calm.”

The zoo in Surabaya is the largest in Indonesia and earned itself a grim reputation due to the hundreds of animals that have died there in recent years.

News website news.com.au quoted one of those experts who had been caring for Melani at its new home in Jakarta saying that the tiger was previously fed an excess of meat tainted with the illegal preservative formalin, and that her digestive system was ruined.

In Ms Sybelle’s account after seeing the autopsy, she said Melani “truly was a miracle tiger to have lived for as long as she did, not just because of the poisoning, but also because of the ailments she was born with at birth”.

The Surabaya zoo faces problems such as a long-running power struggle within the management and severe under-funding. Images of the zoo on Cee4life’s Facebook page show drastic living conditions for the animals, such as over-crowding and lack of cleanliness.

So far, the death toll includes an African lion found hanged in its cage by cables, and a giraffe that died with a massive lump of plastic in its stomach from eating garbage.

Video charting the progress of Melani. Video: Cee4life