March 22, 2017
By Alison Thoet
In the past month, (click here) there’s been a surge of zoo-related violence and injury in the news. A flamingo was stoned and kicked to death in Prague. A white rhino in a Paris zoo was killed, its horn sawed off. El Salvador’s prized hippopotamus, “Gustavito,” died of wounds after he was violently attacked, and a crocodile at a Tunis zoo died after it was stoned by visitors.
The incidents have again raised questions for animal rights activists and zoos alike about what’s being done to keep zoo animals safe.
“I think it’s a reflection that there are some human beings who still see animals as things,” Brittany Peet, director of captive animal law enforcement for PETA, told the NewsHour. Peet argued these international events, as well as the death of Harambe the gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo in May 2016, highlight that “we simply can’t adequately provide for animals in captivity.”...
Mischief? I suppose there are all sorts of bad asses these days.
15 March 2017
A trio of schoolboys (click here) aged between five and eight-years-old reportedly kicked a flamingo to death after pelting it with stones at a zoo in the Czech Republic.
The youngsters reportedly climbed over the fence of the Jihlava Zoo before launching their attack on the flock of American flamingos.
“First, they pelted them with stones," zoologist Jan Vašák told the Prague Morning news site, adding that one of them started to kick one of the birds....
Greed and demoralized economies result in education about animals through illustration only.
March 22, 2017
By Katie Mettler
The savage work of poachers (click here) once concentrated in the wild of Africa and Asia moved metropolitan earlier this month when assailants at a wildlife park near Paris fatally shot a captive rhinoceros three times in the head then sawed off the creature’s horn.
The violent attack on Vince, a five-year-old white rhino, was the first known instance of a rhino being killed in a zoo and forced zookeepers around the globe to consider increasing security.
A Czech zoo, Dvur Kralove, took that to the extreme.
It is home to 21 rhinos — Europe’s largest population — and this week began dehorning them all.
“The decision to remove rhino horns was not made easily at all,” zoo director Premysl Rabas said in a statement Tuesday. “However, the risk that the rhinos currently face not only in the wild but even in zoos is too high and the safety of the animals is our first concern.”
“The dehorned rhino is definitely a better option than the dead rhino,” Rabas said....
Greed and demoralized economies result in education about animals through illustration only.
March 22, 2017
By Katie Mettler
The savage work of poachers (click here) once concentrated in the wild of Africa and Asia moved metropolitan earlier this month when assailants at a wildlife park near Paris fatally shot a captive rhinoceros three times in the head then sawed off the creature’s horn.
The violent attack on Vince, a five-year-old white rhino, was the first known instance of a rhino being killed in a zoo and forced zookeepers around the globe to consider increasing security.
A Czech zoo, Dvur Kralove, took that to the extreme.
It is home to 21 rhinos — Europe’s largest population — and this week began dehorning them all.
“The decision to remove rhino horns was not made easily at all,” zoo director Premysl Rabas said in a statement Tuesday. “However, the risk that the rhinos currently face not only in the wild but even in zoos is too high and the safety of the animals is our first concern.”
“The dehorned rhino is definitely a better option than the dead rhino,” Rabas said....
