Case of the missing pythons: Some dead, some alive, but none sold, claim officials

Zoo officials say all 31 snakes handed over to them by Customs officials are accounted for.

KARACHI: All it took was one call from the Crime Investigation Department (CID) for the Karachi Zoo to open its doors to media personnel on Thursday and provide one-by-one account of each python, which was handed over to them.

The call came after Sindh local government minister Owais Muzaffar ordered an inquiry into whether any of the 31 pythons given to the Karachi Zoo by Customs officials have gone missing. The zoo administration showed the dead pythons in their custody to the media personnel, saying that the others, which were very much alive, had been handed over to the Animal House of the Dow University of Health Sciences (DUHS).



“None of them were ever stolen or went missing,” justified Karachi Zoo’s additional director Aqeel Tazim, although the administration has not received an official letter about the investigation as yet. CID’s Chaudhry Aslam, however, made a call to the administration to check about the missing pythons. “The investigation team was supposed to visit today [Thursday] but they didn’t come,” said Karachi Zoo director Fareed Khan. “When we got the call, I told DSP Aslam that he was welcome to visit the zoo and start their investigation,” said Khan.

The zoo administration showed 11 dead animals, including two adults called reticulated pythons, which died during the Safari Park Pet Show. “We gave them on official directives,” said Tazim, adding that both the snakes were already sick when given to the authorities of Safari Park. The dead snakes will be preserved in showcases where several others were already kept.

Poor care

“They died in Safari Park because they were not being treated or kept properly,” said the pythons’ owner, who believed that all his snakes were either dead or were missing. He has approached the court to reclaim the snakes.

The administration was not sure why the provincial government had taken notice of the missing pythons but suspected that the owner might have requested the government to conduct the inquiry.

On the other hand, DUHS Animal House’s head Dr Zameer Ahmed confirmed to The Express Tribune that a majority of the snakes handed over to them were alive and healthy.

Around 19 pythons — one Curtus, one Boa Cunstrictor, 14 Regius and three reticulates — were handed over to Dr Ahmed. “They were not being fed properly so they ate each other when they arrived at the Animal House, leaving four dead,” said Dr Ahmed. “The remaining 14 are healthy, eating well and being looked after properly.”

Custody agreements

According to the agreement between the zoo administration and DUHS, the Animal House was supposed to be paid for looking after the snakes, especially for their food, but The Express Tribune was told otherwise by DUHS. “We are paying the DUHS administration,” Tazim claimed, while Dr Ahmed refuted by saying, “We are not being paid.”

Tazim said that the owner of the pythons would pay back the zoo the money spent on their upkeep.  “But what about the dead ones?” the owner asked. The zoo administration confirmed that they had no proper expertise for such species.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2013.