Big cats at Zoo to be provided beef, says CM Pinarayi Vijayan

Trivanantapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said in the Legislative Assembly that the state would not implement the beef ban, 130 kg of beef is required for the zoo in the state including the bones. The big cats will not have to go hungry now, Zoo officials took a sigh of relief with the decision.

The beef would be supplied six days except for Mondays ensuring the quality of beef by the vet and superintendent. However, the big cat family will face a dry day on Mondays, without having beef.

DC reports, apart from the tiger, lion and leopard, beef is also provided to jackal and jungle cat. Currently, a kg of meat is supplied at Rs 264.10.

Senior Zoo official said that they are paying the price of the beef only for 700 grammes per kilo as the remaining would be bones for the big cats to bite and chew.

“The meat contractor has to cut and clean it in front of us here every day under CCTV surveillance where the waste would be taken away. On Thursday being district hartal, the contractor didn’t turn up. So we decided to observe it as dry day instead of coming Monday,” he said.

The skinning and removal of the intestine and stomach parts will be done by the contractor and all the organs will be examined by a senior surgeon and certify whether it is fit to consume, as there have been days when the contractor has brought carcases which have been found not edible.

“We will land in the soup if cattle slaughter is banned as the animals are used to the taste of beef. Of course, we used to provide chicken to one of our old Tigers, 19-year-old Karishma who had died two years ago. We will be forced to feed them with mutton which is costly and also on chicken,” said another official.