Whereas I feel there are strong arguments for a relocation to an AZA ACCREDITED FACILITY further south, I do feel REAL ANIMAL WELFARE concerns on site should be the defining factor. I have NEVER deemed the animal welfarists in any way capable of defining animal welfare correctly nor having any significant expertise and/or understanding of the entire concept of zoo elephant management or elephant conservation breeding and/or education in zoos and elephant sanctuaries. As such they remain IMO totally unacceptable as a end location for any zoo elephant.
If they would only devote the ueber generous amounts of funds and cash available to real in situ conservation management and enhancement in range countries, we might be requiring to talk face to face on the issue.
As it stands in the recent past, now and the foreseeable future, given their absolutely blinkered vision of zoos and ex situ conservation activities and failure even to begin to have a serious clue of wild animal management in captivity (which their so-called elephant sanctuaries effectively are and which fail to even come close to providing full quality animal welfare to elephants on site) and public awareness raising and/or conservation activities for wild elephant populations than what the hell are we argueing with them for?
AZA should define - end to end - what happens to Lucy, the Toronto elderly Africans, the Calgary Zoo Asiatics ... et cetera.
End of rant!
If they would only devote the ueber generous amounts of funds and cash available to real in situ conservation management and enhancement in range countries, we might be requiring to talk face to face on the issue.
As it stands in the recent past, now and the foreseeable future, given their absolutely blinkered vision of zoos and ex situ conservation activities and failure even to begin to have a serious clue of wild animal management in captivity (which their so-called elephant sanctuaries effectively are and which fail to even come close to providing full quality animal welfare to elephants on site) and public awareness raising and/or conservation activities for wild elephant populations than what the hell are we argueing with them for?
AZA should define - end to end - what happens to Lucy, the Toronto elderly Africans, the Calgary Zoo Asiatics ... et cetera.
End of rant!
