UPDATE 4: SKELETAL SUN BEARS BEGGING FOR FOOD IN INDONESIAN ZOO

3. The Indonesia Ministry of Tourism website is: http://www.kemenpar.go.id/asp/index.asp. P Holmes has given a letter sample you can use to send. You can of course edit it, or write your own version.

Here is the sample:

"Dear Sir,

I am one of 668,000 supporters ( https://www.change.org/p/president-widodo-shut-down-the-bandung-zoo-now?source_location=minibar) who would like to see Bandung Zoo shut down.

I am appalled and deeply saddened by how animals in Bandung zoo are being forced to live in deplorable conditions, where, sun bears are starving and eating their own feces. Only last year, Yani the endangered elephant suffered for over a week before she died, shackled to the ground. The year before, a giraffe found dead with 40 lbs of plastic trash in its stomach.

Over 90% of all zoos in your country are hell holes for these poor animals. Surabaya is another zoo where Michael the lion, was found hung in his cage, dead. The list of atrocities goes on.

Whilst the Ministry of Forestry has taken a very small step by sending a team with a vet to Bandung Zoo on January 19th 2017, this is clearly insufficient and unacceptable.

These poor animals continue to endure psychological torture/trauma on a daily basis in cramp cages/enclosures, whilst elephants remain shackled. When there is a heavy downpour, there is no shelter for these animals and their enclosures turn into a disgusting and dangerous mud pit. The pool/drinking water in the sun bears enclosure is filthy and green with algae.

To visit Indonesia is to enable animal cruelty. Therefore, I will not be making Indonesia as my vacation destination until your Government steps up to enforce your basic animal welfare law (and improve upon it) and work with the many NGO groups to bring about real change and improvements to all the deplorable zoos in your country.

Thank you for your kind attention."

I have sent them an email and have gotten this answer:

"Thank you for contacting Ministry of Tourism. I certainly understand that it must be upsetting you on Indonesia wildlife and land condition. We were tying our best to ensure every wildlife that live in every Zoo in Indonesia (especially the one that live in Bandung's zoo) are in a good condition as they were in their natural habitat. And I would just like to let you know that we take your concern very seriously as we always striving to improve every tourism aspect in Indonesia. We will make every effort to see this occurrence never happens again. We hope this information helps. To help us improve our service quality, please take your time to participate in our quick survey by clicking this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9L8WYVD"