A post-mortem report conducted on Dory, the penguin who died in the Byculla zoo on Sunday morning, reveals that she died due to an infection leading to septicaemia, which is a serious bloodstream infe
A post-mortem report conducted on Dory, the penguin who died in the Byculla zoo on Sunday morning, reveals that she died due to an infection leading to septicaemia, which is a serious bloodstream infection (blood poisoning). The report states that each organ in Dory’s body was affected at the time of her death. The post-mortem report also revealed that there was a severe infection in her intestines, her liver was unusually enlarged, her respiratory system and lungs were congested and even her circulatory system had a thin mucus layer, while her spleen was paler than usual.
Septicaemia takes place when a bacterial infection elsewhere in the body, such as in the lungs or liver, enters the bloodstream.
In a bid to maintain transparency amidst flak faced by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the death of the penguin on Sunday, authorities have now invited doctors from the Bombay Veterinary College to examine the health of the remaining seven penguins. The vets will visit the zoo on Tuesday, examine the penguins and their environment, and submit a report to the administration regarding the role played by the third parties appointed to take care of the penguins.
Dr Sanjay Tripathi, director, Byculla Zoo, said, “This way, a neutral third party will come and examine the state of the penguins and their surroundings. Based on their findings, we will decide whether to lodge an FIR against the third parties for negligence or not.”
Three private parties — Highway Construction, Oceanias from Australia and Goa Trade Farming — were in charge of providing trained staff and doctors to care for the penguins. Dr Tripathi said, “We will find out if they were irresponsible in their role or not.”
Meanwhile, the BMC is going to write to Goa Trade Farming, which helped them procure the penguins from South Korea, and seek a replacement for the dead penguin. As per the civic body’s contract with the firm, if any penguin dies while they are in the care of third parties trained by the Korean firm to care for them, the BMC can seek a replacement for the bird.
However, additional municipal commissioner Sanjay Deshmukh said, “We are officially yet to take a decision about replacing the dead penguin. I don’t think we want to write to the company which procured the penguin for us and ask for another for free.”
But it has come to light that the BMC did not pay to procure all eight penguins. Dr Tripathi said, “We paid Rs 2 crore for six adult penguins. However, the remaining two babies (12 months and 18 months old) were part of the colony. We were told they would not survive the depression that would ensue if they were separated from their colony. Hence, they gave us the youngest two penguins for free.” Dory was one of the two babies that the BMC had procured for free.
Meanwhile, activists have raised an alarm over the BMC cremating Dory’s body in a haste. Social activist Adil Khatri of Jai Ho Foundation said, “The BMC suspected something fishy after the penguin’s death, and they destroyed evidence by quickly burning her body.”
Safety first Following results of Dory’s post-mortem report, the Bycullla zoo authorities are now testing the remaining seven penguins for similar infections. The zoo’s director said, “We are collecting blood and stool samples of the other seven penguins to ensure that they do not have similar infections.” The penguins have been kept under a veterinarian doctor’s observation round the clock.
