This dead wallaby was left to rot by staff at Tweddle FarmZoo for two weeks and the zoo refused to carry out a post

mortem to establish why the animal died

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10 facts about zoosTweet

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

1. Zoos are miserable places foranimalsA CAPS film, No Place Like Home, highlights the plight of animals held captive in zoos.

In 2010, a CAPS undercover investigatorfilmed sick animals left untreated and deadanimals to rot on floors at Tweddle Farm Zoo.CAPS had to take rabbits to a vet to haveinfections treated and after our expose localpolice confiscated a monkey who had beenkept alone and given cake and other junkfood to eat.

Think safari parks are better than

‘traditional’ zoos? Woburn Safari Park waskeeping its lions locked into small enclosuresfor 18 hours a day. A government zooinspection report in 2010 said: “The animalswere very crowded and there was noprovision for individual feeding or sleepingareas. There was no visible environmental

enrichment. Some of the lions exhibited skin wounds and multiple scars of various age, some fresh,some healed.”

In late 2012, another safari park was shamed as West Midland Safari Park was exposed forproviding white lion cubs to a notorious circus animal trainer, who sent them to a travelling circusin Japan. The lions remain in the circus today.

A government-funded study of elephants in UK zoos found “there was a welfare concern for everyelephant in the UK.” 75% of elephants were overweight and only 16% could walk normally, theremainder having various degrees of lameness. Less that 20% were totally free of foot problems[1].

2. Zoos can’t provide sufficient spaceZoos cannot provide the amount of space animals have in the wild. This is particularly the case forthose species who roam larger distances in their natural habitat. Tigers and lions have around18,000 times less space in zoos than they would in the wild. Polar bears have one million timesless space[2].

3. Animals suffer in zoosA government-funded study of elephants in UK zoos found that 54% of the elephants showedstereotypies (behavioural problems) during the daytime. One elephant observed during day andnight stereotyped for 61% of a 24-hour period[3].

Lions in zoos spend 48% of their time pacing, a recognised sign of behavioural problems[4].

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These lions were sent as cubs from West MidlandSafari Park to a circus trainer

4. Animals die prematurely in zoosAfrican elephants in the wild live more than three times as long as those kept in zoos. Even Asianelephants working in timber camps live longer than those born in zoos[5].

40% of lion cubs die before one month of age. In the wild, only 30% of cubs are thought to diebefore they are six months old and at least a third of those deaths are due to factors which areabsent in zoos, like predation[6].

5. Surplus animals are killedA CAPS study found that at least 7,500 animals – and possibly as many as 200,000 – in Europeanzoos are ‘surplus’ at any one time.

Animals are regularly ‘culled’ in UK zoos. In 2006 the whole pack of wolves at Highland WildlifePark were killed after the social structure of the pack had broken down. In 2005 two wolf cubs andan adult female were shot dead at Dartmoor Wildlife Park. The vet reported: “Selective cull due toovercrowding and fighting in the pack” and “Further cull of cubs needed”. In 2001 a DEFRA zooinspection of Dartmoor Wildlife Park in October 2001 found that “several significant dead animals”were stored in a food freezer “for taxidermy in the future”.

The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) said in 2007 that member zoos were beingactively encouraged to kill unwanted animals, including tigers, if other zoos did not want them andif they were hybrids. It said that such animals take up space and keeper time[7].

In 2010, zoo trade bodies rallied to the defence of a German zoo which was prosecuted forbreaching animal welfare laws after it killed three tiger cubs because they were not pure-blooded(hybrid)[8].

In 2011, an exposé of Knowsley Safari Park led by CAPS following information provided by awhistleblower showed the safari park to be in contravention of legislation on disposal of carcassesas well as raising queries over handling of firearms. A former employee of the safari park alleged:“culling was being used as a means of training instead of being carried out in the kindest and mosthumane way.”

In early 2014, there was global outrage when Copenhagen Zoo killed a healthy young giraffe calledMarius. The event triggered a worldwide debate on culling in zoos and it was admitted by zoospokespeople that thousands of healthy animals are deliberately killed in European zoos aloneeach year.

6. UK zoos are connected to animal circusesCAPS exposed a UK zoo in 2009 that was amember of the trade body BIAZA (which supposedlyupholds the highest standards) as having a breedingconnection with a controversial

animal circus. Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm had beenbreeding camels from the Great British Circus forseveral years and in 2009 obtained three tigers fromthe circus.

A female tiger at the zoo had three stillborn cubsand another who died at three weeks old. Themother also died.

The same zoo was found to doing business withanother circus animal trainer in 2013. This was thesame trainer who had been sold lion cubs by WestMidland Safari Park and sent them to a travelling circus in Japan.

7. Animals are trained to perform tricksMany zoos train animals to perform tricks as if they were in a circus. Performing sea lions, birds

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Keeping an intelligent, complex and social animal like achimp in a UK zoo does nothing to protect his relatives

threatened in the wild

and elephants can be seen at many UK zoos.

Some training of elephants has been done using electric goads. CAPS infiltrated a training sessionheld at Blackpool Zoo in 1998 and filmed elephants being trained to lift their feet and head, holdsticks in their mouths and jabbed with elephant hooks in the shoulder and head.

In 2010 it was revealed that an elephant at Woburn Safari Park had previously been trained usingan electric goad[9].

Blackpool Zoo proudly publicised its training of a baby sealion for shows in mid 2013[10]. This is inspite of the fact that the UK Government has agreed to ban similar shows in circuses on the basisthat: “we should feel duty-bound to recognise that wild animals have intrinsic value, and respecttheir inherent wildness and its implications for their treatment”.

8. Animals are still taken from the wildIn 2003 the UK government gave permission for the capture of 146 penguins from a British territoryin the South Atlantic (Tristan da Cunha). Those who survived the seven-day boat journey fromTristan to a wildlife dealer in South Africa were sold to zoos in Asia[11].

In 2010, Zimbabwe planned to capture two of every mammal species found in Hwange NationalPark and send them to North Korean zoos. This included rhinos, lions, cheetahs, zebras andgiraffes as well as two 18-month-old elephants. The plan was only stopped after internationalpressure by a coalition of organisations including CAPS.

70% of elephants in European zoos were taken from the wild[12].

A CAPS study found that 79% of all animals in UK aquariums were caught in the wild. Sea Lifeaquariums admitted to taking animals from the wild as recently as 2013, but refused to provideinformation on how many of the animals held by them were wild-caught.

9. Zoos don’t serve conservationZoos claim to breed animals for eventual release to the wild but breeding programmes are primarilyto ensure a captive population, not for reintroduction.

Lions are a popular in zoos, but the vast majority “are ‘generic’ animals of hybrid or unknownsubspecific status, and therefore of little or no value in conservation terms[13].

Zoo director David Hancocks said: “There isa commonly held misconception that zoosare not only saving wild animals fromextinction but also reintroducing them totheir wild habitats. The confusion stems frommany sources, all of them zoo-based… Inreality, most zoos have had no contact of anykind with any reintroduction program.”[14]

Captive breeding is considered by someconservation scientists to be a diversion fromthe reasons for a species’ decline, giving “afalse impression that a species is safe so thatdestruction of habitat and wild populationscan proceed”[15].

Zoos spend millions on keeping animalsconfined, while natural habitats are

destroyed and animals killed as there is insufficient funding for protection. When London Zoo spent£5.3 million on a new gorilla enclosure, the chief consultant to the UN Great Ape Survival Projectsaid he was uneasy at the mismatch between lavish spending at zoos and the scarcity ofresources available for conserving threatened species in the wild. “Five million pounds for threegorillas when national parks are seeing that number killed every day for want of some Land Roversand trained men and anti-poaching patrols. It must be very frustrating for the warden of a nationalpark to see”.

Measures to protect giant pandas’ habitat also supports hundreds of species of mammals, at least

200 birds, dozens of reptiles and over half of the plants known to exist in China[16].

In 2013, CAPS revealed that the UK’s largest aquarium operator, Sea Life, could trace less than 3pence per visitor to in situ conservation projects.

10. Zoos fail educationA CAPS study of UK aquariums found that 41% of the animals on display had no signs identifyingtheir species – the most basic of information.

A US study found no compelling evidence for the claim that zoos and aquariums promote attitudechange, education, or interest in conservation in visitors. The study authors urged zoos to stopciting a zoo-funded study which claimed an educational benefit from visits “as this conclusion isunwarranted and potentially misleading to consumers.”[17]

In 2010, a Government-commissioned study found that “Concerns remain, however, with regard tothe lack of available evidence about the effectiveness” of conservation and education projects inzoos.

If you found this article interesting, please read “Top ten reasons NOT to visit Europe’s TopTen Zoos”

CAPS’ work to end the suffering of captive animals can only be achieved with your support.We are a registered charity and receive no government funding. Please donate today to allowus to continue to be a voice for the animals that cannot speak for themselves. Thank you.

[1] M Harris et al. The welfare, housing and husbandry of elephants in UK zoos. University ofBristol, 2008

[2] Wide roaming animals fare worst in zoo enclosures. Guardian, 2.10.03

[3] M Harris et al. The welfare, housing and husbandry of elephants in UK zoos. University ofBristol, 2008

[4] G Mason & R Clubb. Guest Editorial, International Zoo News, Vol 51, No 1 (2004))

[5] R Clubb et al. Compromised survivorship in zoo elephants. Science, Vol 322, 12.12.08

[6] G Mason & R Clubb. Guest Editorial. International Zoo News, Vol 51, No 1 (2004))

[7] Zoos kill healthy tigers for the skin trade. Sunday Times, 22.7.07l

[8] Code of Ethics & Animal Welfare. World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, June 2010

[9] Woburn admits it gave bull elephant electric shocks. Sunday Times, 27.6.10

[10] http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/blackpool-zoo-s-baby-sealion-follows-in-her-mother-s-footsteps-1-5750458

[11] Taken by force. BBC Wildlife, February 2004

[12] R Clubb and G Mason. ‘A Review of the Welfare of Zoo Elephants in Europe’, RSPCA, 2002

[13] Nicholas Gould, Editorial, International Zoo News, Vol 49, No 5 (2002)).

[14] Quoted in ‘Who Cares for Planet Earth?’ B Jordan, 2001

[15] Snyder et al. Limitations of Captive Breeding in Endangered Species Recovery. ConservationBiology, Pages 338-348. Volume 10, No. 2, April 1996

[16] Panda mating frenzy hits zoo. BBC News, 4 May 2007 )

[17] L Morino et al. Do Zoos and Aquariums Promote Attitude Change in Visitors? A CriticalEvaluation of the American Zoo and Aquarium Study. Society and Animals 18 (2010) 126-138

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THE CAPTIVE ANIMALS' PROTECTION SOCIETY (CAPS) IS A UK-BASED CHARITY (NUMBER 1124436) LEADING THE CAMPAIGN TO END THE USEOF ANIMALS IN ENTERTAINMENT, PARTICULARLY IN CIRCUSES, ZOOS AND THE EXOTIC PET TRADE.