THE Blagoevgrad Zoo is like most zoos in Bulgaria: no one knows or cares that it exists. Poor funding and underpaid animal keepers make the conditions for some of the animals almost unbearable.  Built in 1959 and located on a hilltop overlooking the city on beautiful and well-maintained grounds, it was once a thriving zoo during Communism but is now falling to ruin.  This does not stop the zoo from keeping animals.  Quite the contrary: two lion cubs were born in June to Daisy the lioness, one of four lions “residing” at the Blagoevgrad Zoo. 
When I heard this news, my first reaction was an extremely selfish interest to have the once-in-a-lifetime chance to pet some baby lions, using journalism as my motivation. What I didn’t stop to think about until I saw the devastating condition of some of the animals was that it took mama and papa lions to make lion cubs, and these beautiful, elegant creatures were unnaturally locked in cages of concrete and stone for our amusement. Therefore, I, an animal-loving Westerner who has abhorred and avoided the zoo environment my entire life, went floating in my bubble of self-interest and optimism 100km south of Sofia to Blagoevgrad.
What I met upon arrival at the zoo shocked my innocent, optimistic state of mind into utter depression and despair and caused an emotional breakdown.  The first animals we came upon were monkeys.  These poor little guys were in cages the size of most people’s kitchens with floors of concrete and bars of steel. They were in a cage together and had leaves to chew on, a branch to sit on, but not much else.  They were extremely happy to see us and show off their leaves and abilities climbing and jumping, but after their initial excitement wore off, they started looking to the sky through steel bars with sad eyes; a primitive understanding of captivity that reduced them to performing silly tricks for tossed cheese puffs.
Next door to them was a baboon with gorgeous fur, the weird baboon bottom and the gloomiest eyes I have seen yet in an animal. He sat next to the bars, chewing on a leaf and looking incredibly forlorn. His handsome face and austere presence was a reminder that he, along with all of the exotic animals, did not belong behind bars in an obscure Bulgarian zoo for the random visitor, paying a 10 stotinki entrance fee, to goggle at and make fun of.  
As if my sensitivities weren’t already thoroughly trodden on, the next miserable eyes to contact my own swollen and tearful ones were that of a young bear in the most distressing “habitat” of all.  A bare pit six metres below held two brown bears, begging for food and straining to make eye contact with our heads as we peeked over the edge of their enclosure. They looked sad, they looked bored. Their enclosure was not a habitat; it was a cage.  There was rubbish in it, a tiny cesspool that wasn’t able to hold either bear if they had been crazy enough to want to bathe in it, and a miniature door that led to a compartment they obviously had no desire to enter or were too big to fit through. They were together at least, but their quality of life is in desperate need of improvement.
Big Poppa Lion was our next eyeful of misery.  His cage was rather large, and he alternates it with Daisy and her two cubs. The lion tamer, who has worked at the zoo for 30 years, built it himself, but it too is scarce of anything but a large dirt floor and a raised, shaded platform. Two other lions were in their own separate cages, the male sleeping as male lions do and the female pacing maniacally in her cage.  A strong huntress instinctually, she has no right to be stuck in a cage for the rest of her life, though a life in nature is unattainable; and here is our predicament, our responsibility as human beings to animals that end up in these kinds of situations.
Our next stop on the tour of depression and despair were the wolves. These were not the typical timber wolves I immediately imagined, but were instead quite small, more similar to foxes than wolves. The image that has haunted me since my “day at the zoo” was the situation of the baby wolves, two in a deserted cage without their mother and seeming absolutely schizophrenic.  They were all alone, scared, hungry, thirsty, and the saddest sight of all. Two adults were in a cage together, one munching on a rotting chunk of meat and the other whimpering alone in the corner. The other wolf was pacing in a cage, obviously upset, agitated for a number of reasons.
The rest of the animals were reasonably “ok“ and lifted my spirits enough to the point of being able to function and appreciate the animals without tears.  The newly born baby birds, chickens, ducks, turkeys and goats were proof that the animals were healthy and being taken care of.  
However, something must be done for these animals. We all need to step up and take responsibility for them, and it will take a small few to make the changes that the masses will support. With this said, I couldn’t follow the same path as the other journalists who swarmed the Blagoevgrad Zoo to snap photos of the lion cubs and hightail it out of this stiflingly depressive place. Like last year’s lion cubs, which were swopped with other Bulgarian zoos in exchange for the two bears and the deer, these lion cubs will be traded with Stara Zagora and Pavel Banya as part of a nationwide programme to distribute animals between the county’s zoos. In the end, I did get to pet the cubs (and yes, they were adorable), but it was the experience as a whole that has affected me and that will stick with me long after the memory of the babies has faded.
Bulgaria is not a third world country, and though it is in need of some social reforms, it is also in desperate need of animal rights and protection laws. As with most problems in this globalised world, it all comes down to money. Life is hard, but it doesn’t have to be. If everyone finds a way to help one another, whether it be animal or human, we can make a difference in this world. I’m in the process of campaigning for funding for the zoo in order to improve the habitats of these animals and to increase the number of volunteers who offer their time in order to help them. After speaking with the lion tamer and the zoo manager, it seems it really won’t take that much to fix these problems and improve the animals’ quality of life.

Author’s note: Thanks to Roy Hill for acting as interpreter.