2008 Woodie Awards
Zoo babies are cute today, unwanted tomorrow
Debbie Leahy ; People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
Issue date: 4/18/07 Section: Life
Spring has arrived and with it comes the zoo industry's most powerful marketing tool: babies. Zoos know that nothing brings paying customers through their gates faster than newborn animals. But breeding programs, often operating under the guise of species preservation, inevitably result in a surplus of less-crowd-pleasing adult animals. So zoos routinely trade, lend, sell, barter and warehouse adult animals they no longer want. Not a single U.S. zoo has a policy of providing lifetime care for the animals born at its facilities, and many zoos breed species knowing in advance that male offspring will be difficult to place when they mature.
The public should stay away from zoos this spring to show these facilities that anything less than taking responsibility for lifetime care of animals is unacceptable.
Instead of providing lifetime care, zoos shuffle their surplus animals around like checkers on a board _ even though many species, including elephants and primates, form deep and lasting bonds that are critical to the animals' long-term health and happiness. Removing them from established social groups and forcing them to adjust repeatedly to new routines, different caretakers and unfamiliar cagemates is disruptive and traumatic.
Just of few of many examples: In May 2003, an elephant named Ruby was transferred from the Los Angeles Zoo to the Knoxville Zoo and then back to Los Angeles. In December 2000, two giraffes from the Cape May County Zoo ended up in a traveling circus. A chimpanzee named Edith was transferred from the St. Louis Zoo in the late 1960s and has been shuffled through five different facilities since then. She is now imprisoned in a Texas roadside zoo, where she sits alone, depressed and nearly hairless in a barren cage.
As nearly every North American zoo has a surplus of animals, some zoos take drastic measures. Unwanted animals may be sold to dealers _ who then sell the animals to dilapidated roadside zoos or traveling circuses. Some animals end up at canned hunt facilities, where they become targets for hunters eager to shoot "big game." The exotic-pet trade has become saturated with tigers and other big cats because of the zoo industry's reckless disposal of dangerous animals. Other animals are simply sold for slaughter. The chief of veterinary services at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has even called on members of the zoo community to support the use of surplus zoo animals in medical experimentation.
The public should stay away from zoos this spring to show these facilities that anything less than taking responsibility for lifetime care of animals is unacceptable.
Instead of providing lifetime care, zoos shuffle their surplus animals around like checkers on a board _ even though many species, including elephants and primates, form deep and lasting bonds that are critical to the animals' long-term health and happiness. Removing them from established social groups and forcing them to adjust repeatedly to new routines, different caretakers and unfamiliar cagemates is disruptive and traumatic.
Just of few of many examples: In May 2003, an elephant named Ruby was transferred from the Los Angeles Zoo to the Knoxville Zoo and then back to Los Angeles. In December 2000, two giraffes from the Cape May County Zoo ended up in a traveling circus. A chimpanzee named Edith was transferred from the St. Louis Zoo in the late 1960s and has been shuffled through five different facilities since then. She is now imprisoned in a Texas roadside zoo, where she sits alone, depressed and nearly hairless in a barren cage.
As nearly every North American zoo has a surplus of animals, some zoos take drastic measures. Unwanted animals may be sold to dealers _ who then sell the animals to dilapidated roadside zoos or traveling circuses. Some animals end up at canned hunt facilities, where they become targets for hunters eager to shoot "big game." The exotic-pet trade has become saturated with tigers and other big cats because of the zoo industry's reckless disposal of dangerous animals. Other animals are simply sold for slaughter. The chief of veterinary services at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo has even called on members of the zoo community to support the use of surplus zoo animals in medical experimentation.
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