Off-exhibit secrets of troubled zoos

[Guest guest]

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2008:

 

 

Off-exhibit secrets of troubled zoos

 

UBUD, GIANYAR--The Bali Zoo, featuring

exhibits from which animals often " go walkabout, "

might be described as emphasizing form over

substance.

Occupying a six-acre forested ravine in a

residential neighborhood in Singapadu, a suburb

of Ubud, the Bali Zoo has been described by

tourism media as a " hidden jewel " --and it is, at

a glance.

A closer look reveals

species-inappropriate exhibits, neglect of

animal health, and potentially deadly accidents

to visitors and neighbors lurking just around

many of the bends of the zoo's winding paths.

ANIMAL PEOPLE discovered a long list of

problems on two visits to the Bali Zoo in August

2008. Many would by themselves be sufficient to

close a U.S. zoo for violating the federal Animal

Welfare Act, pending substantial improvement.

The much larger Bali Safari & Marine

Park, in Gianyar, offers an altogether safer,

tamer atmosphere. The menagerie consists chiefly

of elephants and big cats. The animals cannot

even be seen from most of the park. Few animals

are exhibited even in the animal areas. Shops

and restaurants may outnumber the resident

species.

Jansen Manansang, head of the

family-controlled company that developed the Bali

Safari & Marine Park, Taman Safari at Bogor,

East Java, and the Taman Safari II park at

Ragunan, West Java, was honored on August 14,

2008 in Jakarta by Indonesian president Susilo

Bambang Yudhoyono.

But the Bali Safari & Marine Park

elephant act, in which an elephant steps through

a maze of audience volunteers lying flat on the

stage, would not be permitted at an an

accredited zoo in most of the world. Insurers

and safety regulators would stop it if zoo

association standards did not.

Bali Safari & Marine Park visitors for an

added fee may be photographed cuddling lions,

tigers, and orangutans, at least some of whom

are drugged to stupifaction--as ANIMAL PEOPLE

witnessed and documented for seven hours on

August 31, 2008.

Asia Animal Protection Network founder

John Wedderburn had already posted on the AAPN

" ZooPage " that " the general good impression " that

the park presents " is spoiled by the photography

areas where you can have your picture taken with

a drugged lion or tiger cub lying on a table. "

Wedderburn had earlier noted " various big

catsŠchained to a bench for long periods so that

visitors can have their photographs taken sitting

beside them " at Taman Safari in Bogor, West

Java, owned and built by the same investors.

Many photos posted to web sites by

previous visitors to the Bali Safari & Marine

Park and Taman Safari appeared to confirm

Wedderburn's allegations.

But Jansen Manansang, who heads the

family-controlled company that developed the Bali

Safari & Marine Park, Taman Safari, and the

Taman Safari II park, is also president of the

South East Asian Zoo Association.

The South East Asian Zoo Associ-ation is

a member of the World Association of Zoos &

Aquaria. Both associations' logos appear on the

Bali Safari & Marine Park and Taman Safari web

site front pages.

Drugging animals for photography and

encouraging the public to handle animals " is

contrary to the World Association of Zoos &

Aquaria ethics and welfare policy, " affirmed

North Carolina Zoo director David Jones, who is

vice chair of the WAZA ethics and welfare

committee.

Jansen Manansang was a member of the WAZA

working group that in October 2006 produced a

document headlined " The Global Zoo Community

takes up Global Zoo Standards through WAZA. "

The 21-page document opened with a

seven-point " Crux of the issue " statement,

mentioning that " a bad zoo conveys unfortunate

subliminal messages, " and expressing concern

about " negative impacts on the safety of animals,

public, and staff. "

This all raised two questions preceding

the ANIMAL PEOPLE visit to the Bali Safari &

Marine Park. First, are the Manansang-directed

zoos actually drugging and/or chaining animals

for photography? Second, if this is happening,

does the Manansang family know about it?

ANIMAL PEOPLE arrived at the Bali Safari

& Marine Park soon after it opened in the

morning. A lion cub photo concession was already

attracting customers. The lion cub offered for

the customers to pose with was sedated to the

point of unconsciousness. He remained

unconscious until about an hour before the

concession closed in early afternoon. He then

began attempting to move and between frequent

bouts of dry heaves appeared to be trying to find

something to nurse from-- a hint that he had only

recently been weaned, if weaned at all.

Tony Greenwood, owner of the Peel Zoo in

Australia, joined ANIMAL PEOPLE in observing the

lion cub about an hour after ANIMAL PEOPLE

started. Greenwood, also involved in developing

and attempting to improve the Bali Zoo, had

business at the Bali Safari & Marine Park with

general manager Esther Manansang, daughter of

Jansen Manansang.

Esther Manansang's uncles Frans Manansang

and Tony Sumampau were Jansen Manansang's

partners in founding all three of the zoos that

their family owns.

Esther Manansang boasted to media when

the Bali Safari & Marine Park opened that " There

will be no honking car horns or feeding animals "

there, but apparently said nothing about

drugging animals for photos.

While ANIMAL PEOPLE continued watching

the cub, also keeping an eye on two locations

at which keepers sold visitors greens to feed

elephants, Greenwood met with Esther Manansang.

After five hours the lion cub had almost

continuous dry heaves, and was carried to an

off-exhibit area over an attendant's shoulder,

past a much smaller and younger tiger cub who had

been offered for photography for nearly as

longer. The tiger cub, if drugged, was less

obviously so. The tiger cub was taken off

exhibit soon afterward.

Greenwood emerged from his meeting with

Esther Manansang stating that she had confirmed

that the lion cub was sedated with a

half-and-half blend of Ketamine and Xylazine

(sold as Rompazine). Greenwood later posted a

similar summary of his discussion with Esther

Manansang on the Asia Dana Forum, a web site

about Asian charities and travel, maintained by

" Anada, " one of the investors Greenwood

introduced to the Bali Zoo.

Esther Manansang did not respond to an

e-mail from ANIMAL PEOPLE asking how many lion

and tiger cubs are used for photo concessions,

how often they are drugged, and what becomes of

them when they mature.

ANIMAL PEOPLE forwarded our findings to

both David Jones and the WAZA secretariat in

Liebefeld, Switzerland, along with seven photos

from individual visitors' web sites and links to

tourism web sites that illustrate and describe

the Bafi Safari & Marine Park photo concession

practices.

" The WAZA office have tried to make

contact with Manansang, " Jones reported on

September 19, " but have had no response. It

appears that this is not for the first time [that

similar complaints were made]. Apparently

something similar was reported a while back and

they asked him about it then, with no response. "

Jones promised that he would, " acting on

behalf of the welfare and ethics committee,

formally ask for an explanation, and we will do

that next week, " he pledged, " if there is no

response to the Swiss office. "

Sabine Gyger of the WAZA secretariat had

already asked Jansen Manansang to " Please look

into the matter and respond. "

Taman Safari project consultant Sherman

T. Wong on September 25 referred the drugging

issue to South East Asian Zoo Association animal

ethics & welfare committee chair G. Agoramoorthy.

E-mailed Agoramoorthy on Sep-tember 28,

" Animal shows and photography are allowed in

SEAZA member zoos if they do not violate welfare

and ethical standards. The SEAZA Ethics and

Welfare Committee carried out assessment of all

three Taman Safari Indonesia parks owned by

Jansen [Manan-sang], and did not see any

evidence regarding sedating animals for

photography, " but Agoramoorthy did not say when

this assessment was done. Neither did he mention

the many web site references to the practice.

" I discussed [the drugging] with Esther

[Manansang]. She had no recollection of speaking

to anyone regarding sedating animals for

photography, " Agoramoorthy said.

Responded Greenwood, " The daughter

cannot remember talking to me? I have no need to

lie and the animals tell the tale any way. We

have been in this industry all our lives. We are

not silly. You were with me when we videotaped

the animals in question This practice is widely

known by many visitors. It is no surprise at

all. "

The WAZA 2008 annual meeting is to be

held in October in Adelaide, Australia. Jansen

Manansang is expected to attend.

" I am going to suggest that it might be

better for him to come to the meeting having

stopped the practice, rather than it become an

issue in Adelaide, " Jones said. " One way or

another, " Jones promised, " I will get it looked

into and hopefully stopped. "

WAZA peer pressure may influence the

direction of the Bali Safari & Marine Park--or

may not. The Bali Zoo does not belong to either

WAZA or the South East Asian Zoo Association.

And Tony Green-wood, after two years of trying

to lead founder Anak Agung Gede Putra by example,

is openly running out of patience.

Tony and Narelle Greenwood discovered the

Bali Zoo in November 2006. Attendence had

collapsed since the terrorist attacks on Bali

tourism facilities of 2002 and 2005. With 75

staff to pay and 350 animals to feed, the Bali

Zoo was $500,000 in debt.

The Greenwoods bailed the Bali Zoo out

financially and began rebuilding, repairing,

and re-organizing the animal exhibits, but soon

encountered resistance.

For example, Anak Agung Gede Putra, who

shares the name of the longtime hereditary rulers

of the community, was in early September 2008

negotiating the acquisition of 14 elephants. He

hoped to start an elephant trek around the

grounds, to compete with the elephant trek

offered by the vastly larger Bali Safari & Marine

Park. Greenwood wondered where Anak Agung Gede

Putra could even find room for 14 elephants to

stand. Unused space at the Bali Zoo is chiefly

on steep slopes and seasonal floodplain,

potentially suitable for expanding existing

exhibits, but not for year-round elephant

housing.

Seeking expert backup for his

recommendations, Greenwood invited attendees at

the August 2008 Asia for Animals conference held

in Bali to tour the zoo and express their views

to Anak Agung Gede Putra.

Among the Asia for Animals visitors who

are known for acumen about zoo management

standards and practices were ZooCheck Canada

founder Rob Laidlaw; Indian Zoo Inquiry Report

author ; and Amy Corrigan and

Louis Ng of the Animal Concerns Research and

Edu-cation Society in Singapore. Corrigan and Ng

are noted for their campaign seeking to relocate

the Singapore Zoo's two lethargic polar bears,

both green with algae.

The findings of the Asia for Animals

visitors, many of them posted later to the Asian

Animal Protection Network discussion group,

focused on small and obsolescent enclosures.

Some of the birds in the entry corridor were

caged so closely that they could barely spread

their wings. The lion and tiger exhibits had

already been enlarged, but are not yet fully

used by the animals, especially the lions, who

continue to pace in the dimensions of their

former habit. Greenwood had rearranged the

monkey and gibbon exhibits to give the primates

space more suited to their needs --but Anak Agung

Gede Putra or some of his staff moved most of

them back to their former quarters.

The Bali Zoo bear pit harks back to the

Middle Ages, when similar pits were built near

marketplaces throughout Europe.

Passing animals around for visitors to

pet and handle, including an endangered slow

loris, would not meet the care standards of most

zoo associations and the legal requirements of

many nations.

Two Javan cattle stood in a reeking pond

of their own diluted excrement, near the zoo

restaurant, with no access to clean running

water or food. Water pipes run along the back

wall of their enclosure. Introducing clean

running water would take a plumber just a couple

of hours.

But there were less obvious failures of

management, as ANIMAL PEOPLE verified on a

re-visit with Greenwood two days after the Asia

for Animals group visit.

A gate to the crocodile and pygmy hippo

pond was open on both visits, with no visible

lock. Several primate cages were left unlocked.

The inmates of one cage appeared to know how to

unhook a lock left open and escape, vocally

objecting when Greenwood snapped the lock shut.

Deer of several species, including some

with fully developed horns, on both visits

hopped casually in and out of their enclosures in

a petting area to mingle with visitors.

The tiger exhibit is separated from dense

housing just a few feet away by a one-brick-width

wall that a tiger might be able to knock down

with a charge. Greenwood said that the smaller

of the two tigers in the exhibit, a white

female, once leaped out of the exhibit to a

visitor observation platform. Had she turned

right, she could have jumped down into the

village. Instead she turned left, into the zoo

grounds, where she was shot with a tranquilizer

dart and returned to the exhibit.

The worst, however, was behind the scenes, in the off-exhibit area.

A barren concrete cell housed two lion

cubs, without food or water. The neighboring

cell housed a lion cub with a large and evidently

infected head wound. A variety of caged birds

nearby also lacked food and water.

Fetching water for first the lion cubs

and then the birds, Greenwood explained that the

local police and wildlife law enforcement

authorities bring to the zoo any wildlife they

confiscate in their work. Often they leave

animals in the off-exhibit areas to be discovered

hours later by staff, who may enter to attend

the ponies stabled there between use at a

pony-ride concession, or to burn garbage. He

believed that the lion cubs were born at the Bali

Zoo, but that the birds were probably

confiscated from alleged traffickers--with whom

they may have been no worse off.

The off-exhibit area also housed seven

gamecocks in the baskets in which they are

typically displayed and taken to cockfights.

Greenwood said the gamecocks belonged to Anak

Agung Gede Putra himself, and were formerly

exhibited near the Bali Zoo entrance. Greenwood

had pressured Anak Agung Gede Putra to

disassociate himself and the zoo from

cockfighting, he said. This, Greenwood added,

was the first that he had seen of the gamecocks

since then.

Behind the gamecocks was a lumber pile.

Atop the lumber pile, clinging to a board in

apparent rigor mortis, recognized immediately by

Green-wood's children, was the slow loris who

had been passed around for Asia for Animals

conference visitors to handle.

None of the Bali Zoo staff admitted any

knowledge that the slow loris had died. Several

told conflicting stories about where he was.

Aware that a slow loris, as a fellow

primate, may carry any number of diseases

communicable to humans, Greenwood and ANIMAL

PEOPLE spent the next several hours trying to

find a veterinarian capable of performing a

necropsy. The slow loris meanwhile passed well

beyond rigor mortis. By then, Greenwood

believed from his own zookeeping experience, the

odor of the remains indicated that the cause of

death was salmonellosis. The slow loris might

have become fatally ill from being handled by

visitors who had previously touched some of the

zoo reptiles.

--Merritt Clifton

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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