Published on: Wednesday, July 25, 2007 |
Kota Kinabalu: Plastics and styrofoam food packets will be banned from the Sabah Zoo in future, State Culture, Tourism and Environment Minister, Datuk Masidi Manjun (pic), told Daily Express.
"I have instructed Sabah Zoo to take immediate steps to ban plastics and styrofoam food containers after receiving complaints from an Australian tourist who saw a tiger chewing plastics thrown into its arena by some unknown visitors," Masid said.
" I think we should tell the people that plastics can kill animals and that plastics are going to endanger the tigers and all other animals as well," said Masidi.
He received the complaint through the SMS from an Australian tourist who noted that the Sabah Zoo was, otherwise, on par with Australian zoo standards.
"That was a compliment to us. I have said at the official opening of the zoo on July 7 that we can make the Sabah Zoo on par with the world's best but if we want to do that, we have to maintain certain standards and the minimum standard is to keep the animals healthy," said Masidi.
He believed a round of education has to be initiated to make people understand the sensitivity of wildlife and not to throw things around inside the zoo.
He said the new Sabah Zoo is doing very well.
"The number of visitors is increasing by the day. It is not fully operational yet as we still need to add a number of exhibits.
There are certain facilities which are still under construction but if we want the zoo to succeed, we need the co-operation of the public and I am sure they will co-operate if they were educated on the dos and don'ts, " Masidi reckoned.
On future plans for the zoo, he said the eventual idea is to open up the entire area.
"We still have one or two more phases to develop and of course this will take time but we rather that by the time it is finished, we can really say that we have done what we have to do and have created a world best with world standards for wildlife," he said.
