VIDEO: ‘Our animals are fine’, says Pretoria zoo
Pretoria zoo says there is logical reasoning behind the concerns of a recent visitor who accused the 85-hectare zoo of animal cruelty.
No animal cruelty is taking place at the 120-year-old zoo located in the Pretoria CBD, says the Pretoria National Zoological Gardens.
This follows after a flood of complaints on social media platforms about a lack of maintenance and animal cruelty at the establishment.
A resident who recently visited the Pretoria zoo, Dewalt Lindeque, said he was unimpressed with zoo conditions and how the animals are being kept.
Lindeque said he found “distressed and dead animals and a lack of maintenance”.
“This is shocking and so sad,” he said.
“If the animals die, the enclosure gets abandoned,” he claimed.
Lindeque said the bird cages were not beautiful and some enclosures did not have water in them.
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He said the zoo was “completely abandoned” as it was filled with “vacant” or “temporarily closed” signs.
Another visitor, Leone Seeber, said: “The zoo is in a very run-down part of town and visitor numbers declined, hence the neglect.”
South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) spokeswoman Angeline Schwan, who spoke to Rekord, said Lindeque had it all wrong and that the timing of his visit was off.
Schwan said the temporary signage at most enclosures was due to a few animals being under veterinary care, either at veterinary hospitals or in their enclosures.
“It is very traumatic for animals to be tranquilised in their enclosures and transported to hospitals, then back to the zoo,” she said.
Schwan said that if circumstances allowed, “although it cannot happen with all the animals”, ideally they are treated in their enclosures.
She said another reason for the signage was due to zoo administration finding the enclosure uninhabitable for a specific animal.
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The zoo is also expecting more animals and the vacant enclosures will be in use again.
Schwan admitted that there were maintenance issues with antiquated buildings at the zoo due to a lot of buildings classified as heritage sites.
“We have a lot of heritage sites; however, you need permission to make changes to them or break anything down and this is a process that can take time.”
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Visitors to the zoo also complained of filthy water holes in the animals’ enclosures.
Schwan said these water holes were created to offer a pleasing aesthetic that created a more “raw” and authentic wild terrain for the animals and to increase natural plant vegetation inside the enclosures.
“We clean the algae created through Mother Nature and remove the dirty water once a week,” she said.
“Fresh water is being provided in the animal’s enclosures as well as to the weekly cleaned [water holes].”
She said the animals’ watering containers were kept in the night enclosures and not where the public could see it.
“The [water holes] are not the animals’ drinking water; however, the animals do tend to drink there, so we clean and keep the water holes filled with fresh water,” she said.
“We could never not let our animals have the best of food and water, as this would be a disaster and we can never allow that.”
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Schwan said people should also not stress over the seal pool or other pools in the zoo lacking water, as they were drained on a weekly basis to clean the dams of animal faeces and other unwanted materials.
She said the complaint of the cheetah’s enclosure being ‘too small’ was due to the fact that the cheetahs did not need to hunt.
“By nature, cheetahs are only required to hunt for food or escape from predators.”
She said as the zoo animals were fed a healthy diet, there was no reason for them to run around.
“Enrichment is provided for the animals to ensure physical and psychological welfare.”
She said an example of this was the elephant’s food being put in various places so the elephants could feel like they were still out in the wild.
Schwan said a lot of people also complained of the zoo enclosures being empty; however, animals were in fact in their enclosures, but had a tendency of being hidden unless one really looked closely.
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She said the lions preferred to stay behind trees and bushes in their enclosures in summer at times.
“People spend little time at enclosures, expecting to see the animals immediately.”
Schwan urged residents not to worry about broken windows at the gorilla enclosure.
“We have had structural engineers on-site assuring us that the glass is safe despite the inner laminate cracking due to ground movement.”
She said there were six thick layers of laminated glass that provided safety to visitors.
Schwan said the complaint of an elephant being in distress was false.
“Charlie’s head-swaying behaviour was a learned behaviour from the circus life.”
She said the head-swaying would never be completely unlearned; however, the zoo has tried dealing with it during the 15 years that Charlie has been with the Pretoria zoo.
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Schwan said the man who had taken pictures and posted them on social media was also in unauthorised areas.
“It is not safe for people to enter such areas, as it is dangerous.”
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