Born Free Foundation. New Campaign

[Strathmorezoo]

BFF have a new campaign urging people to boycott zoos to stop great apes being housed in captivity.
They have released a new report claiming that keeping apes in captivity "is archaic, unethical and a dangerous practice ". They also alleged such animals as Chimpanzees and Orang Utans suffer chronic stress, heart disease and poor mental health. It also claims that animals suffer from catastrophic results ranging from obesity and still birth.
Chris Packham is backing the campaign and said " all the evidence to prove radical change is imperative is now here,great apes mustn't be imprisoned for our entertainment for any longer ".
Any thoughts?

 

[FBBird]

BFF have a new campaign urging people to boycott zoos to stop great apes being housed in captivity.
They have released a new report claiming that keeping apes in captivity "is archaic, unethical and a dangerous practice ". They also alleged such animals as Chimpanzees and Orang Utans suffer chronic stress, heart disease and poor mental health. It also claims that animals suffer from catastrophic results ranging from obesity and still birth.
Chris Packham is backing the campaign and said " all the evidence to prove radical change is imperative is now here,great apes mustn't be imprisoned for our entertainment for any longer ".
Any thoughts?

This kind of suggests Packham is a bad man and anti conservation. This proves it. I’ve (briefly) worked with happy and well adjusted Orangs and Gorillas. He’s promulgating dangerous rubbish. Diets for great apes have improved enormously in recent years, with apes routinely living into their fifties and even sixties. The old reliance on fruit and dairy products is long gone. There may well be a tie-up here with his girlfriend’s zoo…..

 

[British explorer]

If they want to protest or boycott a facility then they should protest against Wales Ape and monkey “sanctuary” and not accredited facilities like Dudley or Chester and looking at the website they only show a tiny amount of their indoor enclosures and zero of their outdoor enclosures.

 

[Jurek7]

I think Born Free does not belong to modern world anymore.

Activists keen do decide on behalf on others what people are allowed to do and what British families are allowed to see on a day out, propaganda 'reports' produced by people with a vested interest in outcome, and creating moral panic - these things belong to the past.

Great apes are among best cared animals in zoos, and live better and longer than in the wild. Assumed 'good health' of wild apes comes from the fact that before any disease becomes externally visible they usually die, and rarely experience old age.

 

[StoppableSan]

Ironic that the lions which were in the film Born Free, Danny and Elsa, ended up living the rest of their days in Paignton Zoo. Just goes to show how dense these slopagandists are, that the film that fundamentally made them who they are had an ironic behind the scenes story.

 

[Lafone]

BFF have a new campaign urging people to boycott zoos to stop great apes being housed in captivity.
They have released a new report claiming that keeping apes in captivity "is archaic, unethical and a dangerous practice ". They also alleged such animals as Chimpanzees and Orang Utans suffer chronic stress, heart disease and poor mental health. It also claims that animals suffer from catastrophic results ranging from obesity and still birth.
Chris Packham is backing the campaign and said " all the evidence to prove radical change is imperative is now here,great apes mustn't be imprisoned for our entertainment for any longer ".
Any thoughts?

I doubt in practical terms it will have any impact - the people who wouldn’t go to zoos in the first place and get excited about shutting them will have their prejudices further reinforced. The families who enjoy a day out at the zoo will continue to go along to the zoo. None of the arguments have a factual basis (if they did they might actually have some point).

A catastrophic obesity crisis would also, in reality, be far better observed strolling among the human population than by visiting zoo animals. First world issue springs to mind.

 

[Strathmorezoo]

This kind of suggests Packham is a bad man and anti conservation. This proves it. I’ve (briefly) worked with happy and well adjusted Orangs and Gorillas. He’s promulgating dangerous rubbish. Diets for great apes have improved enormously in recent years, with apes routinely living into their fifties and even sixties. The old reliance on fruit and dairy products is long gone. There may well be a tie-up here with his girlfriend’s zoo…..

I agree that Packhams views about zoos are wrong. However, I don't agree that he's a bad man per sae. He has actively campaigned against the spring hunting in Malta where certain bird species, including Turtle Doves are still hunted during migration, despite declining populations. Plus his stance against hunting in the UK, where he has received numerous death threats, makes him, in my book, not only passionate about animal welfare but, also a brave man.

 

[cerperal]

I agree that Packhams views about zoos are wrong. However, I don't agree that he's a bad man per sae. He has actively campaigned against the spring hunting in Malta where certain bird species, including Turtle Doves are still hunted during migration, despite declining populations. Plus his stance against hunting in the UK, where he has received numerous death threats, makes him, in my book, not only passionate about animal welfare but, also a brave man.

I personally have always thought that his heart is undeniably in the right place, and in the subjects he is evidently highly educated in - notably native wildlife - he tends to hit the nail on the head. But equally, in recent years especially he has left me somewhat exasperated in his occasionally extreme views and seeming ease in which he is convinced to go along with hairbrained campaigns such as this one. I still remember that he was (and as far as I am aware still is) the face of the anti-zoo elephant campaign for example. So while he has been crucial in trying to change opinions on badgers and TB, I struggle to see his particular expertise in either pachyderms or zoos as a whole.

Born Free, of course, are now far beyond being just a bad presence or voice and continue to be peddlers of psuedoscientific, emotive tosh

 

[Pertinax]

I personally have always thought that his heart is undeniably in the right place, and in the subjects he is evidently highly educated in - notably native wildlife - he tends to hit the nail on the head. But equally, in recent years especially he has left me somewhat exasperated in his occasionally extreme views and seeming ease in which he is convinced to go along with hairbrained campaigns such as this one. I still remember that he was (and as far as I am aware still is) the face of the anti-zoo elephant campaign for example. So while he has been crucial in trying to change opinions on badgers and TB, I struggle to see his particular expertise in either pachyderms or zoos as a whole.

Born Free, of course, are now far beyond being just a bad presence or voice and continue to be peddlers of psuedoscientific, emotive tosh

A lot of what he says relating to british wildlife, hunting etc is true but he also lends his name to other campaigns such as this one, about which he knows very little I think. I do get a bit tired of sèing his name attached to so many different causes. Activism just as a tool for more publicity?