Zoos are known to have supplied animals for use in experiments.
Zoos are known to have supplied animals to the exotic meat industry.
Animals from UK zoos have ended up in circuses.
Zoos have sent animals to appalling conditions.
Animals can die prematurely in zoos.
Surplus animals are destroyed or sold.
Zoo animals may carry disease.
Animals are still taken from the wild.
There is a lack of genetic diversity in captive bred animals.
Most zoos collect 'crowd pullers'.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Zoos Kill Healthy Tigers For Their Skins
Sad but true...
...An undercover investigation by the Sunday Times newspaper has revealed that European zoos are killing healthy tigers in order to sell their bodies to taxidermists who sell the stuffed animals on to wealthy collectors.
During the investigation, to which CAPS supplied advice, a British taxidermist told undercover reporters: “for a price I can pretty much get any specimen you want”. He added: “everything I acquire comes from zoos and safari parks”.
The reporters were offered the skins of two tigers from zoos for £6,000 and a cheetah skin for £3,400.
The taxidermists told how zoos kill animals before they get old, to avoid paying veterinary fees. Andre Brandwood, a taxidermist from Herefordshire claimed zoos placed a “shelf-life” on animals, to cash in on them before they grow old.
Brandwood put the reporters in touch with a taxidermist in Belgium, Jean-Pierre Gerard. Gerard’s network of contacts with zoos across Europe ensures he has a “stranglehold on the market for tigers because so many zoos deal with him” and has, according to the report, fixed the price of tiger skins at £3,000, of which the zoo gets half. Some animals also came from circuses.
According to Gerard, zoos contact him when they kill an animal through injury, ill health or because they have a ‘surplus’ of animals. He even showed the reporters the frozen bodies of two newborn lion cubs.
Although the trade in wild tiger skins is illegal in Europe, trade in captive-bred tigers is allowed if an Article 10 certificate is given by the country’s wildlife department. While the UK’s Department of Environment (DEFRA) rarely issues such certificates, if the authority of another EU country provides a certificate to a dealer in that country the item can then be imported into the UK. So, under this loophole tiger skins from Gerard’s taxidermy company in Belgium can be imported to the UK.
The tiger skins offered to the undercover reporters were from animals just 18 months and five years old who died this year. Although the Belgian certificates to trade in the animals had Gerard’s name on them, the Sunday Times alleges that they had been tampered with and the original certificates were in the name of the Belgian zoos that had supplied the animals. When approached by the newspaper, the Monde Sauvage safari park, which supplied the tigers to Gerard, initially claimed both animals had died of “old age” but then claimed one had died in a fight (despite no damage to the skin) and the other from natural causes. The female cheetah had been supplied by Olmense zoo.
The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), the zoo industry trade body, actually supports this trade. Its executive director Harry Schram told the Sunday Times that EAZA zoos were being actively encouraged to kill unwanted animals, including tigers, if other zoos did not want them and if they were hybrids (i.e. not pure breeds. Schram said that such animals take up space, food and keeper time and euthanasia of the animals was preferable to keeping them alive.
...An undercover investigation by the Sunday Times newspaper has revealed that European zoos are killing healthy tigers in order to sell their bodies to taxidermists who sell the stuffed animals on to wealthy collectors.
During the investigation, to which CAPS supplied advice, a British taxidermist told undercover reporters: “for a price I can pretty much get any specimen you want”. He added: “everything I acquire comes from zoos and safari parks”.
The reporters were offered the skins of two tigers from zoos for £6,000 and a cheetah skin for £3,400.
The taxidermists told how zoos kill animals before they get old, to avoid paying veterinary fees. Andre Brandwood, a taxidermist from Herefordshire claimed zoos placed a “shelf-life” on animals, to cash in on them before they grow old.
Brandwood put the reporters in touch with a taxidermist in Belgium, Jean-Pierre Gerard. Gerard’s network of contacts with zoos across Europe ensures he has a “stranglehold on the market for tigers because so many zoos deal with him” and has, according to the report, fixed the price of tiger skins at £3,000, of which the zoo gets half. Some animals also came from circuses.
According to Gerard, zoos contact him when they kill an animal through injury, ill health or because they have a ‘surplus’ of animals. He even showed the reporters the frozen bodies of two newborn lion cubs.
Although the trade in wild tiger skins is illegal in Europe, trade in captive-bred tigers is allowed if an Article 10 certificate is given by the country’s wildlife department. While the UK’s Department of Environment (DEFRA) rarely issues such certificates, if the authority of another EU country provides a certificate to a dealer in that country the item can then be imported into the UK. So, under this loophole tiger skins from Gerard’s taxidermy company in Belgium can be imported to the UK.
The tiger skins offered to the undercover reporters were from animals just 18 months and five years old who died this year. Although the Belgian certificates to trade in the animals had Gerard’s name on them, the Sunday Times alleges that they had been tampered with and the original certificates were in the name of the Belgian zoos that had supplied the animals. When approached by the newspaper, the Monde Sauvage safari park, which supplied the tigers to Gerard, initially claimed both animals had died of “old age” but then claimed one had died in a fight (despite no damage to the skin) and the other from natural causes. The female cheetah had been supplied by Olmense zoo.
The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), the zoo industry trade body, actually supports this trade. Its executive director Harry Schram told the Sunday Times that EAZA zoos were being actively encouraged to kill unwanted animals, including tigers, if other zoos did not want them and if they were hybrids (i.e. not pure breeds. Schram said that such animals take up space, food and keeper time and euthanasia of the animals was preferable to keeping them alive.
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Zoo animals born to be wild
As part of conservation efforts, animals born and bredin the zoo are released into native habitats to boostfalling numbers otters and mousedeer born and bred in the zoo have been released into their native habitats, as part of conservation efforts to boost their dwindling numbers in the wild.
Other species that land up in the zoo's care have also been given a new chance at freedom in forests here, after getting a clean bill of health. Singapore Zoological Gardens assistant director Subash Chandran said that over the last two years, it has taken in 38 civet cats, 14 pangolins and seven slow lorises.
These were abandoned by people who kept them illegally as pets, confiscated by the authorities, or caught after makinga nuisance of themselves in homes. 'We gave them full examinations, dewormed them and made sure they were parasite free before release,' he said.
Tiny microchips - like identity cards - were also embedded under their skin,so that they will be recognised if caught again. The eight greater mousedeer and five Oriental small-clawed otters, however, were born in captivity and had to be trained to fend for themselves in the wild.
The otters, for example, were first penned up in Sungei Buloh for about two months before they were released there in 2000.
They were gradually weaned off their diet of processed fish and meat and allowed to hunt for live fish and crustaceans instead. 'Otters are opportunistic feeders. They surprised us by quickly devouring all the mangrove snails in their pond,' said Mr Chandran. Upon release, all trace of the otters vanished quickly. 'But we're not worried, we suspect they swam across the Johor Straits, where the food source is very rich. 'Hopefully, they will breed with otters there and some will come back,' he said.
As for the mousedeer, which were released into nature reserves in a pilot programme in 1999, it is too early to tell if the scheme has been a success, said the National Parks Board (NParks). Said an NParks spokesman: 'Animal re-introduction requires careful investigation and study and should not be rushed.'So, there will be no immediate plans to breed other animals for release, she said.
Ideally, added Mr Chandran, the animals could be fitted with tracking devices, so that researchers can keep a close watch on them and establish their feeding and travelling patterns. Other native animals here are so versatile that they have managed to adapt and survive despite encroachment by the urban jungle, without human help. The Malayan flying lemur is one of them. Said Mr N. Sivasothi, a research officer at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: 'It's not very fussy about leaves, it just needs a few tree holes to hide in and can live in secondary forests. So, it's quite commonhere.
'Even the casualties of urbanisation - road kills of wild animals - have a part to play in conservation. Mr Sivasothi, who is part of a group jokingly called the 'Body Snatchers', picks up such dead carcasses. 'Each body is an important record of what species still exist here, as we sometimes get creatures which we thought had already died out,' he said. The DNA of these animals can also be useful in conservation programmes. If a Singapore species has already died out, he explained, its DNA can becompared to the same species elsewhere, so that the most genetically-similar animal can be considered for re-introduction.
Other species that land up in the zoo's care have also been given a new chance at freedom in forests here, after getting a clean bill of health. Singapore Zoological Gardens assistant director Subash Chandran said that over the last two years, it has taken in 38 civet cats, 14 pangolins and seven slow lorises.
These were abandoned by people who kept them illegally as pets, confiscated by the authorities, or caught after makinga nuisance of themselves in homes. 'We gave them full examinations, dewormed them and made sure they were parasite free before release,' he said.
Tiny microchips - like identity cards - were also embedded under their skin,so that they will be recognised if caught again. The eight greater mousedeer and five Oriental small-clawed otters, however, were born in captivity and had to be trained to fend for themselves in the wild.
The otters, for example, were first penned up in Sungei Buloh for about two months before they were released there in 2000.
They were gradually weaned off their diet of processed fish and meat and allowed to hunt for live fish and crustaceans instead. 'Otters are opportunistic feeders. They surprised us by quickly devouring all the mangrove snails in their pond,' said Mr Chandran. Upon release, all trace of the otters vanished quickly. 'But we're not worried, we suspect they swam across the Johor Straits, where the food source is very rich. 'Hopefully, they will breed with otters there and some will come back,' he said.
As for the mousedeer, which were released into nature reserves in a pilot programme in 1999, it is too early to tell if the scheme has been a success, said the National Parks Board (NParks). Said an NParks spokesman: 'Animal re-introduction requires careful investigation and study and should not be rushed.'So, there will be no immediate plans to breed other animals for release, she said.
Ideally, added Mr Chandran, the animals could be fitted with tracking devices, so that researchers can keep a close watch on them and establish their feeding and travelling patterns. Other native animals here are so versatile that they have managed to adapt and survive despite encroachment by the urban jungle, without human help. The Malayan flying lemur is one of them. Said Mr N. Sivasothi, a research officer at the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research: 'It's not very fussy about leaves, it just needs a few tree holes to hide in and can live in secondary forests. So, it's quite commonhere.
'Even the casualties of urbanisation - road kills of wild animals - have a part to play in conservation. Mr Sivasothi, who is part of a group jokingly called the 'Body Snatchers', picks up such dead carcasses. 'Each body is an important record of what species still exist here, as we sometimes get creatures which we thought had already died out,' he said. The DNA of these animals can also be useful in conservation programmes. If a Singapore species has already died out, he explained, its DNA can becompared to the same species elsewhere, so that the most genetically-similar animal can be considered for re-introduction.
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)