Horrifying pics show starving and terrified animals abandoned in blood soaked cages after war broke out and zoo keepers struggled to look after them
Suffering animals at Taiz Zoo would have all died, had three volunteers not stepped in to help
ZOO animals trapped in the middle of war-torn Yemen are being reduced to flesh and bone.
Lions and leopards have been left in dirty urine stained cages soaked in blood at Taiz Zoo.
When civil war broke out, zoo workers fled the enclosures, leaving the animals trapped in their own filth.
But thanks to a group of volunteers, the animals are starting to be cared for once more.
Bassam Al-Hakimi, 25, owned an internet café before war broke out.
Al-Hakimi, along with volunteers Chantal Jonkergouw and Victoria Johner y Cruz, feeds and treats the lions and leopards at the zoo.
The volunteers from SOS Zoo and Bear Rescue needs around £2,200 to do this.
But Taiz Zoo also houses monkeys, deer, horses, birds and reptiles, which the funding cannot pay for.
Since February, the group have raised almost £50,000 to aid the big cats in suffering.
Brave Al-Hakimi has to cross the front line every day to treat the animals.
He said: "The zoo is about five kilometres (three miles) from the front line. About two months ago, the Saudi Air Force bombed an Al-Huthi forces tank stationed near the zoo causing an explosion and flying debris which damaged the snake cage.
"A lot of my friends have been killed in the war, in the zoo there is no danger, but we have to cross the front line and are right in the middle of the two fighting forces. A friend of mine was killed walking next to me.
"Animals are living beings just like us, they have the right to live in freedom, I help these animals because I'm a human and I cannot see these animals suffer and die of hunger without doing anything, This is our duty as human beings."
"Of course many of the animals are very sad, when I stand in front of the cage, and hear the sad roar of the lion, and I see his desperate looks, this breaks my heart.
"Certainly Yemenis have had this war imposed on us and we are paying the price for it, and the animals are most affected because they cannot do something and are just waiting to die in cages.
"We must protect these innocent animals from the dangers of hideous wars that we do as humans, I hope that we can provide a nature reserve where these animals live freely and peacefully one day."
Chantal Jonkergouw is a Dutch banking executive who lives in Sweden and is helped by Victoria Johner y Cruz, a lawyer living in Geneva.
But the pair have found caring for the animals difficult as they need just under £2,500 a day to keep helping the animals.
Chantal Jonkergouw said: "We had difficulties with the hygiene at the zoo, so we had to make it really clean and used the money to help because this was causing bacterial infections in the lions.
"By our own count we have about 266 animals at the zoo including 19 lions and 26 leopards.
"When the war hit and siege specifically of the town, then there were no visitors and the zoo was closed down, no one was paid so the staff left.
"So the treatment of the animals got worse because of all these things. The people were suffering in the war and the animals tend to be low on the list of priorities obviously.
"We have seen video taken of the dump used by the zoo which was full of dead bodies of animals from there, leopard bodies, lion bodies, before we started working with them.
"It's life and death essentially, if we and the Tamdeen workers on the ground had not of stepped in the animals would have starved to death essentially.
"At the moment we are buying them time to find a local solution. This is proving to be extremely difficult as the international NGO's are not stepping in to help, and our fund is running out in four weeks from now. We need more time to find a way to rescue the trapped lions, leopards and the many other innocent victims of this war."
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