LIONS AND TIGERS, OH MY! (via Rantburg):

Don't Hurt Zoo Animals in Iraq War, Pleads UK MP (Reuters, 3/21/2003)

A British Member of Parliament has asked military leaders in Iraq to think about some of the forgotten casualties of war -- animals.

Tony Banks, a former minister in Prime Minister Tony Blair (news - web sites)'s Labour government, welcomed promises from London and Washington that troops would do their best to avoid hitting ordinary Iraqis in bombing raids, but said they also needed to think about the creatures in Baghdad's El-Zawra Zoo.

"In war, countless numbers of animals are killed and injured," the former sports minister, who voted against war on Iraq, said in an statement put before parliament on Friday.

He appealed to military leaders "to ensure that Baghdad's El-Zawra zoo is safeguarded and that when hostilities are over military vets will provide urgent assistance to the zoo and other organizations involved with animal welfare in Iraq."

The zoo, which is reported to be shut and under renovation, escaped bomb damage during the 1991 allied blitz on Baghdad but keepers said the animals had been disturbed by the noise of bombs hitting nearby targets....

In 2001, [Banks] championed the cause of Marjan, a lame one-eyed lion in Kabul Zoo when the U.S. carried out bombing raids in Afghanistan ...

If the animals were disturbed in 1991, they'll be shocked and awed by 2003. Posted by Paul Jaminet at March 21, 2003 3:55 PM