Protest outside Dublin Zoo

dublin | animal rights | event notice Sunday April 05, 2009 16:44 by Laura Broxson - National Animal Rights Association naracampaigns at gmail dot com PO Box 11019, Dublin 2

On Saturday 11th April, as part of the CAPS (www.captiveanimals.org) "Zoo Awareness Weekend", we will be having a protest outside Dublin Zoo in Phoenix Park, Dublin 8. Saturday will also officially mark the launch our new anti-zoo campaign. It's been many years since Dublin Zoo was protested, and so from May onwards, we will be demonstrating outside the zoo on the last Sunday of every month.

We have created a new Zoo page on our website (http://www.naracampaigns.org/dublinzoo.html) with lots of information on it (given to us by CAPS), which also includes our newly compiled "Dublin Zoo in the Headlines: A Hidden Past of Abuse" Factsheet (copied below).

Here's the plan for Saturday:

Meet at: 12noon (sharp) outside Connolly Train Station (Amiens Street, Dublin 1).
From there, we'll be getting a Luas to Heuston Station, which is only a 10min walk away from the entrance of Dublin Zoo.

We aim to be set up at Dublin Zoo by 1pm, and will stay there until 3pm.

*Note that, as we are expecting to receive the same reaction we get when protesting animal circuses, we will be notifying the police beforehand, for our own safety. There is also a chance that police will remove us from the Phoenix Park grounds, so we may have to move to the nearest public street - so just call/text me if you can't find us.

This is a very important event, so please do your best to make it. And if you could let me know if you're coming (so I can get an idea of numbers), I'd appreciate it.

Thanks,

Laura Broxson

086 8729 444

National Animal Rights Association

FACTSHEET - Dublin Zoo in the Headlines: A Hidden Past of Abuse

1994 / 1995:
Zookeeper of 10 years Brendan Price quits in protest of the animals’ living conditions.

The two resident Polar bears are mentally ill (they have been at the zoo for 17 years).

Adult male hippo kept inside with a tiny ‘bath’ - separated from female and baby hippo, who get to go outdoors. In winter, the male will be kept in a different pen, with just a running hose to stand under.

Elephants locked out of indoor enclosure during zoo open hours - so they are constantly on display.

Animal rights groups call for independent inquiry after the death of a Sea Lion.

No hiding place for wolves to get away from the public eye - kept on display at all times.

Dublin Zoo will not release their animal records - which would document how many animals have been born, bred, imported, exported, or have died there every year.

1995:
Pregnant Gibbon dies days after Orang-utan tested positive for tuberculosis.

Sea Lions are kept in chlorinated water - as a result some suffered from keratitis which then progressed to blindness.

Report commissioned by the ISPCA says many of the animals in Dublin Zoo are bored, stressed, withdrawn and in urgent need of stimulation.

1996/1997:
Animal rescue organisations “Animal Rescue” and “Bear With Us” offer to pay (and provide a home) in Canada for the Zoo’s two Polar bears. This follows an animal cruelty investigation and Gardai report sent into the DPP on the mistreatment of the bears.
Zoo director says the Polar bears will ‘not be withdrawn from the zoo’ as they intend to build a bigger enclosure.

1997:
A White Rhino (which is an endangered species) was shot dead while being loaded on a truck to go to Longleat Safari Park (owned by Chipperfield’s Circus).

Zoo staff say the rhino died ‘almost instantly’.

11 Penguins die from food poisoning.

1998:
Dublin Zoo admits to giving Prozac and Valium to the animals to ‘encourage them to interact’.

A Macaw is stolen after a break-in at the zoo.

1999:
An undercover investigation on the Chipperfield’s Circus and Farm (they are a notorious, and convicted, family of animal abusers in the UK) revealed that Dublin Zoo had been supplying them with animals - such as camels, hippos, tigers and lions - for years. Why? Because Dublin Zoo can’t fit all the animals that they breed every year.

2000:
A wolf was shot dead - because he ‘tried to escape’ - and 8 wolf cubs were put down, as the zoo had no room for them.

25 prairie dogs were killed - some from eating rat poison and burrowing into the cheetahs enclosure. When the rest did not surface from their burrows, the area was bulldozed as it was under renovation. Zoo staff ‘believe none were present’ at the time.

A Scarlet Macaw (an endangered species of parrot - on ‘loan’ from Britain’s Twycross Zoo) was given to a private collector and told that he could keep the bird indefinitely. Dublin Zoo claim the bird ‘would be returned if required’.

A mother and baby chimp (on ‘loan’ from Belfast Zoo) drowned in the new island exhibit, while trying to rescue another chimp which had fallen into the water. The baby got an electric shock from the fence before falling in. Zoo staff claim they saw what happened, but were ‘powerless to intervene’.

2002:
A female Hippo dies after eating a tennis ball that was thrown into her enclosure.

2003:
The Polar bears were so mentally disturbed that they had to be transferred to a zoo in Hungary.

2004:
Some wild foxes got into the zoo and killed a small number birds for food. Dublin Zoo then hunted the foxes, killing at least one of them.

2006:
A teenage girl is mauled by Siberian Tiger after she scaled two fences and stuck her arm into enclosure. How did she manage to do all this without being spotted by zoo staff?

2008:
Orang-utan, Maggie (who has spent 24 years in captivity), escapes from her enclosure and wanders around the zoo for an hour.

NOTES - THE HISTORY OF DUBLIN ZOO:
Dublin Zoo was opened in 1830.
On June 17, 1903 an elephant named Sita killed her keeper. She was then killed by members of the Royal Irish Constabulary.
During the 1916 Easter Rising, other animals in the zoo were fed to the lions and tigers.
During World War II, old trees from the area were cut down and used to heat the ‘tropical houses’.
A lion named Slats was born in the zoo on March 20, 1919. In 1928 he was used as ‘Leo’, the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio's mascot. Of what benefit to Slats was this?
There was a major outbreak of tuberculosis in Dublin Zoo in the 1980’s.
Ex Zoo Director, Peter Wilsons, was a vivisector at Trinity College.
There is only one lion, Sheila, left at Dublin Zoo. She is 22 years old and has spent all of her life in captivity. Zoo officials say that when she dies, she will be replaced by a group of Asian Lions.
Conservation con - most of the animals kept at the zoo are in no danger of extinction - so why are they there?
Horses deemed no longer useful to the racing industry are killed and fed to the lions and tigers at Dublin Zoo.