ISAW Holds Crowdfunding Campaign for Zoo Recapp: Reporting the Condition of Zoo Animals via Mobile Application

ISAW Holds Crowdfunding Campaign for Zoo Recapp:

Reporting the Condition of Zoo Animals via Mobile Application

Jakarta - For the next 60 days, the Indonesian Society for Animal Welfare (ISAW) is doing a crowdfunding campaign through Indiegogo.com for the development of Zoo Reporting for Citizens Application (Zoo Recapp), an interactive mobile app to assess zoos easily and systematically on smartphones. Zoo Recapp is developed to build a public collective reporting platform (crowdsourcing) on the condition of zoo animals.

Alarming condition of zoo animals in Indonesia and the indifference of the general public towards animal welfare have encouraged ISAW to develop Zoo Recapp as a assessment platform as well as interactive education media about the standards of animal welfare which refers to the Zoo Exhibit Quick Audit Process (ZEQAP).

Unnatural deaths of animals in several zoos in Indonesia for the past few years -from the 'hanging suicide' of a lioness, a giraffe which who died with piles of plastic wastes in its intestines, up to a tiger who died from consuming formalin meats- have proven that the lives of zoo animals have been forlorn for too long. Not only physiologically, but the animals also suffered mental distress as shown by their abnormal behaviours (also known as 'stereotypic behaviour') such as walking back and forth aimlessly, perpetual hanging, and  biting cage wire.

 "Stereotypical behaviours indicate poor welfare of the animals," claimed the Executive Director of ISAW, Kinanti Kusumawardhani. "Through Zoo Recapp, we want to engage the general public to be more aware towards animal welfare issues and take active role in observing, assessing, and reporting the conditions of zoo animals."

Currently, ISAW has succeeded in developing a prototype of this application for Android smartphones, which is put on a test run by 25 students from Bandung Independent School (BIS) and members of Bandung Street Children Program today (29/4/2015), to put their concern into real action.

Meanwhile, the money raised from the 60-days crowdfunding campaign will be spent on improving the app on Android, and also getting the app available for Windows and iOS.

The crowdfunding campaign also gains a positive response from Protection of Forest & Fauna (PROFAUNA) Indonesia, a non-profit organization who works for wildlife and forest protection. "We highly appreciate the ISAW's breakthrough innovation, the Zoo Recapp. It is time for us to promote animal welfare values, so that more people would pay attention and express their concern for animals," said PROFAUNA's founder, Rosek Nursahid.

For further information, please contact:

Kinanti Kusumawardani

Executive Director

Indonesian Society for Animal Welfare

Mobile: (62) 8561895796

Email: info@isaw.or.id