Lion, wolves and bears draw the crowds at Baghdad pet shop
BAGHDAD — Sabah Alazawi is doing a roaring trade these days at his Baghdad pet shop — and not only because he has a lion for sale. Along with dogs, he also offers bears, wolves, monkeys and vultures. While hundreds of people visit his menagerie daily, most are there because it offers a free alternative to an outing to the zoo, rather than to buy. But Alazawi, a former soldier who has long harbored a passion for wild animals, doesn’t mind in the least. “Children and families are depressed in Iraq. I am proud to give some happiness to these people,” he says, as crowds mill around his pet shop in Mashatel street, a leafy thoroughfare in northern Baghdad’s Adhamiyah district. Jutting out on to the pavement are three cages that serve as the homes respectively of two young bears, a lion cub and a pair of baboons. Another monkey, chained at the leg, hops from one cage to another while two vultures are tied to their perch nearby, completing the strange scene that meets the bemused gaze of passersby and motorists queuing at a security checkpoint on the other side of the road. More curiosities can be found inside the shop, which gets around 400 visitors a day. Source: The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100716com3.html |
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