A lot of people have two empty pockets these days, having lost their job or even their business, yet there are still those who don't have money problems and wish to support others. In but a month, countless fundraisers have been organized, whether for health professionals, disabled people, the hospitals themselves or single mothers. However, government measures have also affected animals in zoos. Due to zero attendance, institutions lack the money needed to feed these helpless creartures. Prague Zoo thus announced an adoption event. Within one week, it raised nearly twice as much money as the fundraiser to support healthcare workers who have contracted the coronavirus.
It is obvious that a large part of the population prefers animals to humans. At least here in the Czech Republic. Prague Zoo belongs to the most visited places in the country. The management of the garden was almost 100% certain that the population would rise to the occasion. In seven days, an incredible 716,318 crowns was raised in a campaign to support the young born during the quarantine period. It is mainly thanks to the videos on Youtube. The channel "Krátce ze zoo" ("Short news from the zoo") offers scenes from animal life.
In six days, 197 new adoptive parents and 160 individual sponsors emerged. By now, people have donated 575,245 CZK for animal husbandry and 141,073 CZK for sponsorship, ie 716,318 crowns in total.
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Mládě emu hnědého. Source: Petr Hamerník, Zoo Praha
"I am delighted that we have managed to further support adoption and sponsorship through this campaign. Some animals already have their adoptive parents, the Amur leopard or the lemur kata, while some are still waiting for their new adoptive parents, such as the red panda or the tiger python. But we hope it's just a matter of time,”
says head of PR and marketing department Jakub Hritz.
In Germany, it will come to culling
The Germans, however, don't support their zoos quite as much. In Neumünster, the director of the local zoo said they already had a list of which animals would have to be culled first. She is even considering feeding one animal with another, but believes this to be an extreme solution.
"If it gets that far, we will rather euthanise the animals than starve them,"
said zoo director Verena Kaspari, adding that "in the worst case we would feed some animals to others". The loss is estimated at 175 thousand euros.
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Na zdravotníky se vybralo méně než na zvířata.Source: Pixabay
The fundraiser for healthcare professionals leaves people cold
But when it comes to helping people, citizens appear to be hesitant. The Mayor of Říčany Vladimír Kořen organized a fundraising campaign to help healthcare professionals who've contracted the coronavirus. He started this wave of solidarity after a nurse at Thomayer Hospital, whose family lives in Říčany, died. Although these people are first-line workers who spend their lives every day trying to save others, in six days, a little over 400,000 crowns have been collected, which is less than half the money compared to the zoo.
Even so, the mayor is extremely glad and grateful, because he didn't expect such a wave of solidarity at all.
The state of emergency will be in place for at least a few more weeks, so let's hope people will keep helping others, albeit in smaller amounts of money.
