Zoo resorts to legal recourse to protect reputation
SAXONWOLD – There has been an outcry from Ban animal trading and members of the community over Joburg Zoo's World Elephant day celebrations.
Managing director of Joburg City Parks and Zoo Bryne Maduka said that the zoo resorted to legal recourse against the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) and Ban Animal Trading (Bat) in order to protect the reputation of the zoo.
Maduka described the actions as ‘blatant and deliberate attempts by Bat and the NSPCA to distort the facts of the proceedings of World Elephant Day’.
Maduka said the day was hosted to highlight the plight of elephants, particularly in the wild, and why zoos are important to study and fully understand the challenges faced by dwindling elephant populations globally. He said the day was also aimed to give free zoo access to the most marginalised children who now have a better understanding of elephants.
He said that training is an essential part of the elephant management plan at the zoo. “It is undertaken to enrich physical and mental stimulation and as part of [the] cooperative medical management regime.”
He said the benefits of this training is that it helps ease stress; ensures continuity if previous training was undertaken; reduces the need to immobilise animals through the use of tranquilisers and sedatives; aids in moving animals to a safe area in the event of an emergency and immediate detection of health concerns.
“The training is reward-based to encourage participation, is optional, is limited to a few minutes, is not designed for ‘tricks’ for ‘performance’ purposes and is certainly not punitive.
“Any person with any knowledge of animal welfare, including the NSPCA, should have known better than to accuse the zoo of mismanagement of its elephants as these are accepted norms and standards of animal husbandry, practices not only within a good zoo environment but also within sanctuaries. Unfortunately, Bat and the NSPCA, who have no training in the management of elephants, used the enrichment and behavioural talk to incite anger and provoke aggression on social media towards the Joburg Zoo.”
Maduka said that the zoo remains steadfast in its mandate to act as an ethical institution that complies with all legislated requirements of conservation and education in the city. He calls on all residents to exercise care in the manner in which they consume and disseminate information.
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