A Shanghai zoo is updating information boards outside cages and
pens to replace phrases like "Meat is edible," "Fur can be used"
and "Evil animal" with cuddlier ones such as "Please be nice to
me."
"We hope in this way more visitors will look at the animals with
tenderness and affection, not as if they were merely resources for
human use," said zoo official Tang Jirong, who is in charge of the
revamp.
The new information boards started appearing in October 2001.
"There are more corrections and rewriting than we expected," said
Tang.
The decades-old information boards described the tiger as an "evil
animal" whose meat is edible, bones can be used as medicine and fur
can be made into carpet.
The newly erected board in front of the tigers' pen includes a
detailed description of the tigers' plight in China and the world,
and calls on visitors to protect them.
"We have removed words of hostility," said Tang, "The new boards
say tigers can also live on crops, but may attack human beings when
starved to extremes."
Tigers used to be widely feared and hunted. Figures provided by the
Shanghai zoo show that between 1952 and 1953, some 170 South China
tigers were killed in central China's Hunan
Province alone. The creature is now on the verge of
extinction.
"Some people killed male tigers to eat their genitals, which are
believed to have the functions of Viagra," said Tang. However,
recent research has found that a tiger's copulation time lasts for
only 18 seconds on average, he said.
Tang and his colleagues have completed revamping the descriptions
of some 200 species. They are working more slowly than expected
because from time to time, they have to consult many books before
they agree on the wording.
Tang said he loved the rewriting job. "Man will treat animals as
equals some day," he said.
An
incident caused widespread outrage and invoked widespread concern
for animal welfare last month when a college student was detained
for pouring a mixture of sulphuric acid and caustic soda over bears
in Beijing Zoo.
(China
Daily March 5, 2002)