A photo of an emaciated lion posted on Gimhae City Hall's website (Busan Alliance for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)

A zoo in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province is under fire for allegedly failing to care properly for its animals. The number of complaints filed by Gimhae residents about the zoo on Gimhae City Hall’s website's "Ask the mayor" forum between 2013 and 2021 totaled three, and there were six complaints in 2022, but the number of complaints about the zoo jumped to 33 just this month.

Along with their complaints, residents posted photos of poorly cared for animals, according to them. The photos included a lion that appears malnourished, sheep with dirty and shaggy fleece and a white tiger held in a small space.

A Gimhae City Hall official told The Korea Herald that the white tigers' enclosure at the zoo is around 30 square meters in size. According to the Wild Tiger Health Project, a main tiger enclosure should be at least 5,000 square meters in size.

Some of the posts read: “Set the suffering animals free,” “Gimhae is being indifferent to the neglected animals” and “Please be considerate of animal welfare.”

There were even demands to shut down the zoo permanently.

A photo of two white tigers being kept in an enclosure of approximately 30 square meters in size at the zoo (Gimhae City Hall's website's "Ask the mayor" board)

The zoo in question opened its doors to the public in 2013 and houses 69 animals of 34 different species, including Bengal tigers and black panthers, both classified as endangered species. It is also the only privately-run zoo in South Gyeongsang Province -- making it a popular destination for families with kids based in the cities of Gimhae and Changwon.

A post written on Thursday read: “I visited the zoo with my child a few days ago, and I hated myself for going there with my kid because of how horrible the animals’ conditions were. My child kept asking me about the animals but I couldn’t bring myself to answer them.”

The zoo's director acknowledged that the animals have been poorly taken care of but said that it was due to a drop in the number of visitors during the pandemic.

A photo of an unshorn sheep posted by a Gimhae resident on Gimhae City Hall's website (Gimhae City Hall's website's "Ask the mayor" forum)

“Visitor numbers dropped by almost 60 percent during the pandemic,” said the zoo director. “It was difficult to operate the zoo with the revenue at the time.”

Last year, the representative was also fined for feeding camel carcasses to a tiger, according to an MBC report on May 13, 2022.

According to a Gimhae City Hall representative, the animals are reportedly in good health. The city hall stated that they send a veterinarian to check on the animals every month and that it has been confirmed that there are no abnormalities.

“Some of the animals are not as active because they are old,” said the zoo director. “Although we had to cut the number of employees we had at the zoo due to low revenue, we never went to the extent of starving the animals. I am not a zookeeper who abuses animals.”