Gorilla pulls out her hair in frustration at being kept in cage for 30 years

A gorilla kept in a cage on the seventh floor of a shopping mall should have been freed years ago. However, in heart-breaking scenes, Bua Noi pulls at her hair and anxiously rolls around her squalid cage. 

Shocking footage has been released of the visibly-distressed gorilla, aged 30, who has never set foot outside a concrete-floored enclosure. Bua Noi lives in filthy Pata Zoo in Bangkok, Thailand, which is housed in a shopping centre.

She was brought from Germany as a youngster in 1992 after the zoo owners paid three million baht (£77,400) for her.

She has stayed in her cage alone ever since and visitors say they can see tears in her eyes. There were calls for her to be released in 2015 and for the zoo to be closed. But, shockingly, she remains at the indoor zoo with other wild animals including orangutans, chimpanzees, leopards, reptiles and birds as neighbours. 

A visitor who filmed the footage said: 

I felt very sorry for the gorilla. She looked so sad. It’s terrible because there’s no hope for her anymore. ‘Many people tried to save her before and she had a chance of freedom, but nothing came of it. I’m worried everybody has just forgotten about her. ‘She should be in the wild not in a zoo.

At least once in her life, she should feel the earth on her feet.

Four years ago, officials of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation were alerted to the zoo, which was ordered to close after it was found to lack the correct paperwork. 

They also ordered the owners to remove the gorilla and other large animals including tigers, monkeys and apes. 

Despite calls for her release, Bua Noi’s owner Kanit Sermsirimongkol has kept her but signed an agreement to take better care of her. 

He insists there is ‘no problem’ and her sad look is her ‘natural expression’ He added: 

We have been taking care of Bua Noi like our own daughter. I know that we will have to find her a suitable new home one day but it’s not good idea to immediately release her back into the wild without teaching her how to survive on her own.

source: METRO