Guest guest Posted March 20, 2007 Report Share Posted March 20, 2007 Dear Azam, Many thanks for bringing this news item to our attention. Guwahati Zoo had tried to bring in Orang Utans from Thailand a few years ago too. One might be pardoned for being sceptical of the motives of Guwahati Zoo since they have been bereft of great apes for many years and Orang Utans are surefire crowd pullers. They, of course, are reciting a conservation parable so that the zoo director can be garlanded in front of the media when the animals arrive. The Species Survival Network has expressed its concern over this move and I attach a response from Ms Ann Michels: Dear Mr. Ghosh, Thank you very much for alerting us to this zoo swap. We have sent an alert to our Members, along with the news article, requesting that they send letters to the Central Zoo Authority. I'm sure we will have a good response. We will also prepare a letter from our own organization. I will be sure to send you a copy. With best wishes, Ann Species Survival Network 2100 L Street NW, Washington, DC 20037 USA Tel: +1-301-548-7769, Fax: +1-202-318-0891 info It is heartening to note that the Species Survival Network is concerned about this move since it is a consortium of many organisations and their concern may in turn, imply, the concern of many other organisations. It would be appropriate if we start start writing to the following to request this deal to be put under the scanner: His Excellency Mr. Chirasak Thanesnant, Royal Thai Embassy, New Delhi Email : thaidel Mr. Wanna Pherngmak , Royal Thai Consulate-General , Kolkata Email: thaiccu Miss Madurapochana Ittarong , Royal Thai Consulate-General, Mumbai , thaimub Mr. Suphot Yanthukij , Royal Thai Consulate-General, Chennai , thaicnn All Thai embassy contacts in India here: http://www.thaiemb.org.in/community/thai_government_agencies.asp It would also be appropriate to write to the Thai embassies in Britain and US: *Royal Thai Embassy London 29 - 30 Queen's Gate London SW7 5JB Service Hours : *Monday - Friday 9.30 AM - 12.30* *PM* Tel : *020-7589-2944 Ext. 5502-5507* Fax :* 020-7823-7492 * csinfo * Royal Thai Embassy in US, Washington, DC: 1024 Wisconsin Avenue, N.W., Suite 401, Washington, D.C. 20007 For Thai embassies in all other countries, link here : http://www.thaiembassy.org/ It would also be very pertinent and relevant to bring this issue to the notice of the Great Ape Survival Project(GRASP) of the United Nations. Contact: Melanie Virtue, GRASP Team Leader Great Apes Survival Project (GRASP) Secretariat United Nations Environment Programme P.O. Box 30552, 00100 Tel: +254 20 762 4163 Fax: +254 20 762 3926 Nairobi, KENYA Email: grasp Website : http://www.unep.org/grasp/ Please also consider writing to these people in India beacuse they bear responsibility for this deal in India: *The Secretary *Government of India, Ministry of Environment & Forests Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road *New Delhi - 110 003. (INDIA). * Telephone:+91-11-24361147 E-mail: envisect <envisect?subject=Response+from+MoEF+Website> The Member Secretary : Central Zoo Authority Annexe-VI, Bikaner House, Shahjahan Road, New Delhi-110011 Phone # 91-011-23381585,23073072,23070375 Fax # 91-011-23386012 cza NEW!!! cza The origin of these Orang Utans in Thailand has been a matter of debate for a long time and should be looked into carefully before any Thai zoo enters any negotiation with any other institution anywhere in the world. Also since the Great Ape project speaks out against Great Ape captivity altogether it might be worth writing to them as well :l:info There is very useful information on the Orang Utans in Thailand on the website of Monkey World. Link here: http://www.monkeyworld.co.uk/topic.php?TopicID=45 & Template=standard The overhwelming majority of zoo exchange programmes are shady and zoos endeavour to make them respectable by putting on a veneer of 'scientific' acronyms. This seems to be a very highly questionable deal and needs to be tackled in the here and now. There are other organisations who might be of help but these contacts would serve as a good starting point. Please draft a press release and send it across quickly, it could be circulated when necessary. Is People For Animals doing anything on this in Assam? Many thanks again for bringing this proposed deal to light. Your efforts to help the creatures of North East India are much appreciated. Thanks. Best wishes and kind regards, > Link: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070320/asp/guwahati/story_7538075.asp > > > Zoo nod to animal swap- Thailand to give 10 animals & a bird for a rhino > > A STAFF REPORTER > > March 19: Under the animal exchange plan, the state zoo will hand over a > male > rhino and receive two clouded leopards, five orang-utans, one > stump-tailed macaque and three binturongs. > > > Recent Activity > > - 6 > > > . > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 22, 2007 Report Share Posted March 22, 2007 A small piece of ice exchanged for a bigger block of ice in the desert noon! Both will melt with time. One sooner...the other a little later... but both will! When the whole fraternity is pushing hard to throw a ban on the zoos considering the conditions the animals are kept in, their maintenance and all the other things that all of us here are aware of; here some people seem to be proud of sending across animals to a different country not to be released into the wild, not into a wildlife sanctury, but just another jail! Same applies to the leopards and the apes who will soon be forced to enroll themselves into the crowded prisons of the North East (of India). I really wish to meet my rhino friends before they leave cos probably the next time I recognise them would be probably by their horns in some rich man's 'priced' posessions. Or in the least they may perish in an alien land... i am not being a pessimist here, but my only question is why trade animals. We as humans worked at abolishing slave trade; arent we doing the same thing here? People who advocate in favour of zoos need to realize that we already have sufficient number of them for tourists to see and 'enjoy'. Also as far as most of them are concerned, if we had to cut on the corruption in there, the city/ state would still not loose on revenue if another zoo werent to be opened, or the existing zoo requiring doing 'flesh trade' to grope in more 'customers'. Its time people traded selfihness to provide better living conditions for the animals in the wild, ensure the practise of zoo(ing) is not propagated by ridiculous exchanges to ensure only more corruption; or worse.... look at this way... may be more animals are going to be dragged off from the wild of one native land to be exchanged with another from a foreign source! I share my views with Azam and Shubroto and many others like us that this 'deal' probably needs to be put off and rather the government should work at rehabilitating the animals into national parks which I am sure people are more keen to visit! Ignorant as a kid, visiting a national park against the local zoo closer to the city was on my vacation must-dos because I was visiting a 'jungle'. Its my humble appeal to people who are only looking at generating more funds for themselves and the city by propagating zoos to give a thought to this! People prefer watching animals in national parks rather than in zoos! If this sort of a practise is nurtured now, we may soon have 'government poachers' 'hunting' for animals in the wild to trade off and one day eventually the jungles will be left with none. I request all those people who are going to defend it by saying.... " we keep our animals 'well' in the zoos " .... " this is a conservation activity " etc... not to bother replying cos I and a lot of others who have studied zoos know this is not true. I am sure Shubroto will have more to say on that! Thanks, Pablo. -- WOCON: http://groups.google.co.inwocon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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