alieNL
Well-Known Member
Zoo 'suspended from selling animals'
It's been revealed that Taronga Western Plains Zoo has been suspended from selling animals after it misled the public about the sale of endangered antelope to a member of the Shooters' Party lobbying for the right to hunt them.
The Sydney Morning Herald says documents obtained under Freedom of Information show the zoo made none of the contractual safeguards it claimed to have implemented to protect the 16 blackbuck antelope from being hunted on Bob McComb's proposed game reserve. Instead, the sale contract stipulated the zoo accepted no responsibility for the animals after they left Dubbo.
The paper says internal correspondence shows the animals were sold to Mr McComb for less than half their value and had been bred for the sale after the zoo's population dropped to an historic low.
While the zoo, at Dubbo west of Sydney, maintains that a senior veterinarian inspected Mr McComb's property before the sale, there is no mention of the assessment in the zoo's correspondence and no record of a report being prepared.
The Herald says the NSW minister responsible for the zoo, Carmel Tebbutt, has demanded a report into the zoo's trade of animals after the paper revealed the antelope sale to Mr McComb. She said it would include "what further animal welfare protections should be put in place. In the meantime, the zoo has suspended such transactions with private operators."
A zoo spokeswoman said: "The zoo is at its heart dedicated to animal welfare. There is no history of mistreatment of animals that have been transferred from its care, (but) it was incorrectly stated that transaction records included a reference indicating the animals were to be used for breeding purposes only."
It's been revealed that Taronga Western Plains Zoo has been suspended from selling animals after it misled the public about the sale of endangered antelope to a member of the Shooters' Party lobbying for the right to hunt them.
The Sydney Morning Herald says documents obtained under Freedom of Information show the zoo made none of the contractual safeguards it claimed to have implemented to protect the 16 blackbuck antelope from being hunted on Bob McComb's proposed game reserve. Instead, the sale contract stipulated the zoo accepted no responsibility for the animals after they left Dubbo.
The paper says internal correspondence shows the animals were sold to Mr McComb for less than half their value and had been bred for the sale after the zoo's population dropped to an historic low.
While the zoo, at Dubbo west of Sydney, maintains that a senior veterinarian inspected Mr McComb's property before the sale, there is no mention of the assessment in the zoo's correspondence and no record of a report being prepared.
The Herald says the NSW minister responsible for the zoo, Carmel Tebbutt, has demanded a report into the zoo's trade of animals after the paper revealed the antelope sale to Mr McComb. She said it would include "what further animal welfare protections should be put in place. In the meantime, the zoo has suspended such transactions with private operators."
A zoo spokeswoman said: "The zoo is at its heart dedicated to animal welfare. There is no history of mistreatment of animals that have been transferred from its care, (but) it was incorrectly stated that transaction records included a reference indicating the animals were to be used for breeding purposes only."