Rishon Lezion shuts down local zoo over zebra deaths

A Rishon Lezion zoo was shuttered Tuesday after a zebra and its newborn foal died due to possible negligence.

The case occurred several weeks ago, but came to light after a visitor shared it on Facebook (Hebrew).

Orly Cohen recounted noticing during a Saturday visit that the zebra, Tami, was in labor but had suffered a breech birth: the newborn’s legs had emerged first and it had become stuck in the birth canal.

Cohen quickly alerted staff, but was told that there was no one to call due to the Sabbath. A veterinarian only arrived many hours later and the zebra did not arrive in an animal hospital until 14 hours after going into labor.

The newborn was already dead when it was extracted, and his mother received treatment but died some time later.

Cohen’s post recieved hundreds of angry replies and was shared over 700 times.

The city municipality has ordered a probe into the circumstances and said the zoo would be closed until the incident had been looked into.