[I’m posting this on behalf of the Chinese Companion Animals Protection Networks - any thoughts or suggestions?]
Video of dogs as exhibits in HuangZhou Zoo
Dear Friends:
Above is an online video we made about dogs in Hangzhou Zoo, P.R.China.
We have been working on these issues for 2 years, there is about 50 dogs
involves. Some other Chinese zoo also kept dogs in similar manner.
We would like to have you ideas on these issues, major problems are:
- Should the zoo kept dogs in this kind of environment and manner?
- If not, Why?
- What do you think is a constructive solution to solve to this problem? Eg
if close down the dog exhibition area, how should the zoo arrange those dogs
current in the zoo? Local adoption will not be easy in particular to those
large dogs. In general, there is lots of control (such as dog’s size, and
tax etc) of keeping pet dog in the country. We also have concern that those
dog has been put in captive for most of their life, they may not be able to
get along with a new family environment. This problem is the major problem
stop any further action at this stage.
Look forward to hear from you
Best Wishes
Jia Meng
Chinese Companion Animals Protection Networks
http://www.ccapn.ngo.cn
Er, uh, for one, they shouldn’t be feeding animals at a zoo.
I have no idea what kind of zoo would keep dogs. An incredibly boring one, I assume.
Quite a few of those dogs had eye problems, and a few had some skin problems, but I wouldn’t be overly concerned about them. Could tell them simply to talk to the people at the zoo about getting the dogs eye drops and some flea medicine. It’s in their best interest to keep the dogs looking good for slack-jawed gawkers, anyway.
Granted, I’m just going off what I saw on the video (which wasn’t much). If they say the dogs are sick, then maybe they’re sick and I just can’t see it. That Samoyed didn’t seem too comfortable, but I can’t tell what that red stuff on his side was exactly. I do feel sorry for that sleigh dog and the photo dog. Poor bastards. Though one of my huskies would kill for a gig like that sleigh dog’s got.
Looks better than the Neihu animal shelter. More space to move around. The dogs in the zoo have much more than seven days to live too.
Them dogs look a lot better than some I’ve seen.
Sure, some have matted fur, worn elbows from laying down too much, and some have eye disease. But in general, none look incredibly sick. Nothing you can’t fix within a few months, I would think.
Perhaps the solution would be to require these zoos to pass examinations. Of environmental cleanliness and the physical health of the animals.
If the condition of the animals truly bother these people, perhaps they can consider pooling their money together and employing the services of a veterinarian to help these animals. It would provide faster relief to these “captive” dogs than sitting around not knowing what to do except for throwing bread at the dogs for two years.
Captive dogs. Yup. I got one.