The financial crisis is having a deadly impact on animals at Attica Zoological Park, Athens’ only zoo at Spata. Many of the zoo’s 1,200 animals require imported specialty foods but – as if the 23% VAT hike on animal feed were not enough – the government-imposed restrictions on cash are blocking the zoo’s ability to access foreign shipments. Without immediate relief, some of the zoo’s animals may be just weeks away from starvation.

Jean-Jacques Lesueur, the zoo’s founder, cannot access or transfer funds to pay suppliers in France, Germany and the Netherlands.This means that the Greek zoo animals could fall victim to food shortages. much like the 9,500 animals at Kiev zoo during the Ukraine crisis and the starving animals at Baghdad Zoo during the 2003 invasion of the city.