July 14, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-us-Sani 28, 1428

LAHORE, July 13: A borrowed Bengal tiger died at the Lahore Zoo on Friday. Officials said deadly blood parasite thaleria-triposoma was the most probable cause of the tiger’s death, but added that a post-mortem report has yet to come from the Veterinary Research Institute.

An unconfirmed report from the institute, however, says the tiger’s lungs were damaged.

The tiger was brought to the zoo from Lahore Wildlife Park a month ago for breeding purposes. This is the fifth tiger to die at the zoo during the last four years.

Officials told Dawn the tiger was fine by 4am on Friday, but later his condition deteriorated and he died within an hour. He was given five to six injections by an assistant vet, but to no avail.

Some officials alleged Zoo Deputy Director Akhtar Iqbal Bhutta had been neglecting his duty for the last several days. They said Bhutta was informed early in the morning about the tiger’s condition, but he reached the zoo at 8am, about three hours after the tiger’s death.

When contacted, Bhutta first said no tiger had died at the zoo. But when he was told that the tiger’s body had been taken to the Veterinary Research Institute, he said “yes, a tiger has died of heatstroke”. When asked how he knew before a post-mortem report that the tiger died of heatstroke, Bhutta insisted it was the heatstroke.

Zoo Management Committee Vice-Chairman Tauqeer Shah said the blood parasite had crept into the zoo and added that the parasite had most probably killed the tiger. He said this parasite attacks and kills animals within no time and the same happened to the tiger on Friday.