There are only 400 Sumatran tigers remaining on Earth. Fifteen of them live in the Surabaya Zoo, a government-run facility in Indonesia’s second-largest city.  These magnificent creatures should be respected and preserved for future generations, but at Surabaya, these rare and valuable animals are treated like the garbage that is thrown at them.

Surabaya’s tigers are forced to live in a prison-like row of tiny concrete cages filled with urine and feces. Their once-muscular bodies are now nothing but skin and bone, and their sunken eyes stare out fearfully at the large crowd of people that surround their tiny cages. Some of them are in such poor condition that they are not allowed to be seen by the public, and are instead forced to spend the rest of their short lives in dark, squalid cages. A white tiger, whose parents were donated by the Indian government nearly 20 years ago, is now missing an ear and covered with painful skin lesions. She is rarely released from her cramped cage, and as a result, suffers from back complications that make it difficult for her to stand up, let alone walk.

Within one month alone, two of the zoo’s Sumatran tigers have starved to death after zoo staff deliberately poisoned their food with formaldehyde. The poisonings, caused by feuding staff trying to kill animals as a political tool, have put many more tigers on death’s door.

 Recently, a white tiger named Chandrika died. She had sustained a painful infection, probably on her left shoulder, that developed into a weeping tumor, which she licked and licked to ease. This infection was then passed onto her tongue, where she endured excruciating pain until she bit off her tongue in agony. Food often fell out of her mouth, and she began to starve. Zoo officials knew that Chandrika was ill, but they failed to provide her any medical treatment. Even when an outside organization volunteered to help the dying tiger, the zoo refused, instead forcing Chandrika to spend her last three months dying a slow, painful death. These magnificent animals were some of the last of their species, and they lived a life of pain and suffering due to Surabaya’s horrific neglect.

It’s not just the tigers who suffer. The zoo is currently home to 3,459 animals, including endangered species such as the orangutan and komodo dragon. Each of them are trapped in dank, filthy cages and left to breed uncontrollably. Recently, a giraffe named Kliwon died with a 40-pound wad of plastic garbage in his stomach, an endangered Javan warthog was poisoned with cyanide by the zoo’s staff, and an 18-month-old lion cub was killed by hanging, her body found gruesomely dangling from a noose.

 Animals that don’t die due to abuse or neglect are frequently sold on the black market by the zoo officials. Rahmat Shah, chairman of the Indonesian Zoo and Aquarium Association, was recently named in a recent filing to the Corruption Eradication Commission about the alleged illegal trade of up to 483 animals from the zoo, including highly endangered species such as the Sumatran tiger and Bali starling.

The poor treatment of the animals at Surabaya has prompted outrage and disgust both internationally and within Indonesia. In 2010, one of Indonesia’s national newspapers called the attraction the “Surabaya Zoo of Death,” and during the same year, the zoo’s license was revoked. Government officials then took over management of the facility, but despite the  intervention, conditions at Surabaya Zoo have failed to improve, and over 4,000 animals there continue to suffer. More than 15 of them die, every single month.

In 2014, Surabaya is once again promising to improve conditions at the zoo, but history has proven repeatedly that the government lacks the knowledge and funds required to provide even the most basic care and respect for the creatures entrusted to them. For example, the zoo’s 86 pelicans are crammed in a cage so tiny that they cannot open their wings. When asked by a BBC News reporter if this was a problem, a zoo official replied,

“No. This cage is big enough. There is no overpopulation. They need to live in groups in order to breed.”

A similarly shocking display of ignorance was also displayed by zoo director Ratna Achjuningrum, who said that many of the animals fell ill not because of the squalid conditions, but “because of their own mistakes,” such as “being hyperactive” and “fighting among each other.”

Until this zoo is either closed or overhauled,it will continue to be a bed of corruption and a squalid grave for the world’s most treasured animal species. We cannot sit idly as these precious creatures are tortured and killed. We must all raise our voices and demand that this cruelty is stopped immediately. With your help, we can end this nightmare for good.