If you are looking for a light read, you probably shouldn't read this post..
Unfortunately, not all sides of a developing country are equally beautiful. There are so many sides of Ethiopia that I truly adore, but there is also a part of my experience here that really made me sick to my stomach.
I have always been an animal lover.. The university has a zoo on campus, and not that I've ever liked the idea of animals in captivity, but we decided to go take a look at it anyways. I really did not know what to expect, but I cannot even begin to explain what I saw.
If you have read previous posts, you would know that I adore the hyenas that roam free around campus at night. Why there were hyenas in captivity then, I do not know, but one hyena at the zoo was.... I was devastated... he was....
They said it had been in a fight with the other hyena, its bottom lip was bit of, the fur and skin on its entire forehead was missing, plus it was not capable of getting up.... now the zoo is just waiting for it to die. The pictures I have of it are too graphic for me to post, but it was crushing to see an animal in such poor condition.
All other animals here were also clearly stressed, with limited space and no mental stimulation to keep them from going crazy. This poor hyena though, I cannot get it out of my head. The hyena pictured is the one who apparently hurt the other so badly.
I am doing all I can right now to try to get ahold of the vice-president of the school to please either treat or euthanise the injured hyena. No one deserves to live in so much pain he was clearly in.
I know that developing countries, where providing food to the human population is already proving difficult. Many people are constantly dying due to the lack of resources. This being said, I do not understand why so little is done for animals in so much pain. When speaking to some locals last night, they laughed at the matter of wanting to euthanise an animal, it would surely die anyways.
I love this country, I really do. But those pain-stricken scared eyes are really lodged in my mind right now.
The plan for sunday: If I cannot get ahold of the VP before monday, you can find me in the zoo.
