dubai zoo

When Caila arrived home last month from her day at school, she brought with her a letter saying that her class was going to Dubai Zoo for their field trip. We knew it would be a good experience for her so we signed the consent slip. Unfortunately, a day before their trip to the zoo, Caila told us tearfully that she didn’t want to go because she was scared of the animals, and even though we explained that they were going to be in cages and they wouldn’t hurt her, nothing and nobody could change her mind...so, we just let her miss the field trip. However, we didn’t want her to miss out on the experience, so we decided to go to Dubai Zoo that weekend. Knowing that we would be there to comfort her if she got scared, our eldest daughter was actually excited to go.

Since it was a Friday, you can imagine that there were lots of people: teenagers, tourists, young expats enjoying the day-off, and of course, families. The entrance fee is only 2 dirhams per person which is really, very cheap. The sad thing there is, with a low entrance fee like that, you can bet the condition of the zoo wasn’t good at all. Lots of animals cramped in such a small area. The animals seem trapped in their cages which are just too small for them, the entire area stinks, and considering the hot climate here, I’m sure the animals suffer a lot during the summer. I really pity them, especially the bears and chimpanzees because some of them have bald spots and big sores where their fur should be.  There used to be talks about building another (better) zoo somewhere for the animals, but I think it was just that: talk...no action.

Anyway, at least Caila enjoyed seeing all the animals and she’s no longer afraid of them as before. Because the zoo and the animals was such a depressing sight, we took only a few photos of our visit.  Here are some of them:

see what I mean by "cramped"?!

 

don't go too near this guy because this chimpanzee spits

And here’s the funniest thing we saw that day

live show of the old tortoises doing their thing ;)
Caila said they were fighting (whew!)

And of course, our family photo of that visit:

I hope the day comes soon when ALL of us are smiling and looking at the camera