Newsletter
ANIMAL RIGHTS AFRICA TAKES ACTION
Animal Rights Africa mounts campaign against private zoos
Private zoos in South Africa are mushrooming out of control. Not one private zoo in South Africa adheres to international standards or plays a significant role in conservation. Thousands of wild animals with complex social structures and foraging ranges of hundreds of kilometres are confined to small cages and are being forced to endure enormous cruelty and suffering. Apparently these zoos seem to gain legitimacy by being members of PAAZAB (the African Association of Zoos and Aquaria) but this is just a case of smoke and mirrors as PAAZAB is a self-regulating, voluntary organisation which has no monitoring or enforcement capabilities. These zoos are wrongly legitimising themselves and trying to lend credibility to their operations by simply becoming members of a weak and ineffectual PAAZAB. It seems very much to be a case of money being made on the back of animal suffering and nothing to do with conservation or natural social environments.
Animal Rights Africa insists that permit issuing authorities must be extremely cautious about issuing any facility with a permit to keep wild animals in confinement, and also that such an authority should take cognisance of the Animal Protection Act and, at the very least, accept a 'duty of care' responsibility with regard to the welfare of any animals confined in terms of a permit issued by them. Animal Rights Africa also calls on all provincial nature conservation bodies to consult widely with animal rights and animal welfare organisations before issuing permits for people to keep wild animals, both indigenous and exotic, in captivity for whatever purpose, including the use of such animals as hunting trophies.
The South African conservation authorities have been very free with issuing permits thereby actively growing the trade in wild animals. This has lead to the tragic situation today of thousands of caged lions and other large animals waiting to be shot by foreign hunters, and with thousands of wild animals sitting in hugely problematic private zoos.
Animal Rights Africa takes a moral and social stand against the cruelty inherent in the existence of zoos in South Africa and its distasteful locale within the colonial notion of 'exhibition'. Zoos and dolphinariums abuse animals' rights, mainly because of the confinement and exhibition purely for human profit, entertainment and amusement. Zoos are not real 'green' spaces, 'living classrooms' or places where children can develop an ecological consciousness. Rather, the alternative to species extinction is to conserve animals in in situ sanctuaries and natural habitat preservation rather than zoos.
Huge amounts of money spent by zoos all over the world to secure wild animals for exhibition could be better spent on preserving habitat in the country of origin.
In the long-term the fundamental reasons for wild animals becoming endangered needs to be addressed in order to truly protect wild animals, their environment and habitat. Alarmingly, zoos are not only breeding excessively, but this is an activity that is aggressively encouraged, particularly because young cubs and baby animals are more of an attraction and because animals bred in zoos are often sold for profit via dealers. This is how zoo animals end up in the pet trade; as victims of canned hunts or as breeding animals for the cruel wildlife trade.
There is an urgent need to bring the private zoo industry in South Africa to book and to subject them to public scrutiny. Animal Rights Africa will be calling on government to urgently address this problem.
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