A visit to the Giza Zoo in Cairo, Egypt

On Saturday we finally went to visit Cairo Zoo. The boys have been asking to go since we got here – they always loved the zoo in Antwerp – and since it’s not expensive we’ve been talking about going for a long time. It cost 1 Egyptian pound per person, and we also bought a map for 50 piaster, which helped up locate, among other things, the 'Falmingoes', the 'Tigires', and the 'Hanging Bridage' which would take us to the 'Chirman of Zoo Group', should we have any pressing matters to share with him.

There was a lot of people visiting the zoo, and a lot of families with picnic baskets sitting or laying around, eating and drinking. Behind a bush we even spotted a family, most likely Coptic, conspicuously sharing a bottle of whiskey. Whenever we approached a cage, a zoo keeper would hand the boys something to feed the animals, and a lot of them also offered to take us into the back where we could touch or hold one of the animals. We let the boys accept a few lettuce leaves here and there to feed some of the animals (under strict instructions not to touch the animals), and of course this immediately attracted the attention of other children, but as soon as an Egyptian child came up to a cage and asked to feed an animal, the zoo keeper would brush them away. Only after their parents offered baksheesh, the zoo keeper would let their children feed the animals, whereas our boys were offered leaves or treats even out of our sight. Throughout our visit, which lasted well over three hours, a man kept following us around carrying pictures of people with lion cubs in their arms, offering to take us behind the lions’ cage where we could take pictures of our children holding a lion cub. I must have told him “no, thank you” about 100 times, but he kept insisting all the way until we left through the main gate.

We did not have very high expectation when it came to the animals’ comfort and care, but the elephant that was chained with a one foot long chain to the cage door so that the zoo keeper could force his trunk out for bystanders to touch for baksheesh seemed unusually cruel, even to the boys. After a search in vain for the giraffe, we were told by one of the gardeners that the giraffe was “morte”, which Courtney for a moment took as ‘murdered’, and actually as far as that goes, that might actually very well be a correct interpretation.

Upon leaving the zoo, the boys, although content with the fact that we had finally gone, declared that they would not like to go back there again. “I felt too bad for the animals,” August sighed.