Jim A, How would you like to have to sweep goat and Llama poop out of this exhibit each day, before the advent of high pressure water hoses and nozzles?
Monday, June 2, 2008
Lima Zoological Park--Lima, Peru
What are we doing to ourselfs here!!!!!!
Saturday, May 31, 2008
6 comments:
I was referencing the news article below. Joey referred to it as a hoo-haa, and asked for Australian readers to add insight. They responded with "grow your own dope, bury an animal libber or animal fanatic. Which was seconded by a knowledgeable CFA and today on this blog by a former "circus brat", with all due respect. I now realize that Mr. Miller, again with all due respect, in addition to being the "elephant trainer" at the Taronga Zoo is also the Director. Just speculating, but do you suppose some law's were "stretched" or "statements not verified" in a concerted "I just gotta have them, short of "breaking" the law, what ever it takes" effort? I'm not saying, I'm just wondering? Who got "radical ed here? You gotta wonder if it might have been the elephants.
I will not accept that the people who raised this issue are deserve death!!!
My response in the above post on Buckles Blog to Joey Rattliff, was in reference to this newspaper article. And after looking for months, I can find no documentation/study/proof that the elephants were not taken from their mothers, as it was suggest that the "radicals" were saying, just to be a pain in the butt. I have suggested to two of the gentleman in the above post, that they shouldn't say things like that, and that is only hurts "our" cause, and makes us look invalid. I didn't waste my time a second time, as I stated the same thing a couple of days ago, in regards to a "radical" statement, and I suggested today that Margaret not, repeat those things. Casey Canine, who is starting to see the light did suggest that they gentleman not say things like that, and it was censored by the man and blog he apologized to. I hope he will run his comment to the men here, as we will run it, as THAT VENOM HAS TO STOP, OR IT WILL KEEP US FROM ADDRESSING THE REAL ISSUES. RENEWED doubts over the legality of Taronga Zoo's importation of nine Asian elephants have been raised overseas, with documents from Thailand suggesting that up to half may have been snatched from the wild. Moreover, the registration certificate for one elephant, the now pregnant Thong Dee, shows she is just six years and nine months old - despite an animal welfare requirement that the zoo not use any elephant under the age of 12 for breeding. Last Friday, the Herald contacted the zoo's media relations manager, Mark Williams, informing him that it had the registration documents in its possession and requesting the zoo provide alternative documentation to substantiate its claim that Thong Dee was indeed eight years old. The zoo failed to provide any documentation, instead issuing a media release stating that the elephant's former owners in Thailand had since reneged on Thong Dee's age, admitting they had only "roughly estimated" it at the time the documents were prepared. The next day, the zoo publicly increased Thong Dee's age from eight to between 11 and 12. In The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, her new age was announced, after a reported dental examination on Friday afternoon by the zoo's elephant director, Gary Miller. The Herald has commissioned two independent translations of the original Thai documents, tendered to the Australian government in 2006 to support the case for the elephants' importation. Both confirmed that Thong Dee's registration certificate, dated December 16, 2003, lists her age as two years and six months at the time of registration. Taronga, which until Saturday was claiming Thong Dee was eight years old, has been forced to defend the unexpected pregnancy. If the pregnancy succeeds, however, it will hold the honour of being the first zoo in Australasia to breed an Asian elephant in captivity. As the story of Thong Dee's rapid graduation from eight to 12 years of age over the weekend travelled the world over the internet, the ire of overseas experts was raised once more. Ian Redmond, a wildlife consultant who received an OBE for services to conservation in 2006, said it was inconceivable that any elephant handler could be as much as six years out in estimating an elephant's age. "It's like mistaking a toddler for a 10-year-old child … this is getting silly. The fact that Thong Dee is pregnant is irrefutable evidence of her being physiologically capable of reproduction; the question is over her psychological immaturity." The emergence of the elephants' registration certificates also threatens to ignite a second international row. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, papers must show a young elephant has been legally obtained by the exporter. This is usually achieved by identifying the mother and father, thereby proving the calf has been captive-bred. Yet the documents for four of the imported elephants give no details of parentage. Will Travers, the British-based president of the Species Survival Network and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, said the Taronga Zoo management's new claims that its original export documents were unreliable called into question "the reliability, and therefore credibility, of the entire export process, [which is] already demonstrably full of holes". Dr Redmond said the latest revelations raised the possibility the entire elephant shipment to Australia was wild-born, and called on Taronga to immediately conduct DNA testing to remove all doubts. Last night the zoo said it had met all Australian and international criteria in the 2006 export of the elephants. "The Thai and Australian governments ensured all the animals were born in Thai work camps," Mr Williams said. "Thai registration procedures for elephants do not require owners to list parents' names, so the absence of these names is irrelevant and not illegal." He said animal activists such as Mr Travers were "simply continuing a vexatious five-year anti-zoo campaign against a legitimate and internationally sanctioned conservation program."
Doubts cast on ( Taronga Zoo's ) elephants' origins Kelly Burke - Sydney Morning Herald
February 25, 2008
THIS IS HOW YOU DEAL WITH ISSUES--You do not hide, you do not deny, you do not cast aspersions
This is the most recent editorial from one of the best online horse training/interest sites available today. It is available by subscription, or you may subscribe, of which I am a subscriber. The site is available for viewing what the contents are on an abbreviated version. As more comments are made to the full story, and it is "brutal", I will try to keep you posted, or subscribe if you are interested. These a people who make their living with horse, and truly love them and all disciplines. Maybe the honestly addressing of the issues, and formating change, like the rodeo, the race horse industry, the Olympic dressage world, etc. etc. has done has shown that they are truly concerned for the animal and the animal only.
Sadly the equestrian community has been rocked at many different levels by the shocking deaths at both the Kentucky Derby and the Rolex Three Day Event. We share in the sadness that so many are feeling with a discussion in Three Dead Horses. A disturbing article that continues that discussion in the article Eventing: What Can We Do Better, where we invite you to share your opinion and your knowledge in our Add Your Voice Feature - on how we can improve things for the horses. Many are calling for the complete halt to any sport that pits one animal against another on everything from racing to the Olympics. These deaths undeniably are having a profound effect on the possible future of our equestrian endeavors. We might quite possibly be approaching a crossroads of incomparable significance on what horsemanship will be in the future as those who are committed in truly making the horse our first responsibility, voice is perhaps finally being heard.
Warm Regards,
Nadja King
Editor
Horses For LIFE Magazine
http://horsesforlife.com
I have looked at this picture for years and can't figure it out. I have scanned it at 200, instead of 100 so maybe we can answer the mystery. He has balls on his tusks, but they are very asymmetrical, almost like they were added after the picture was taken. The building has been added into the background, and I am not even sure it is the elephant building. The fence is no where near adequate for a bull elephant, the door behind him, I promise is not an elephant door, the window he would tear up, and the tree's look like they have been added. Strangest of all he is standing on a small log, that has red on it, as well as his right leg. I don't see an elephant standing on that small log for any reason. I have always wondered if it was something else he was standing on, and the "log" was added, as much has been added, before developing?
Vintage Buffalo Zoo--Buffalo, New York--Elephant House
On the back of this picture somebody has penciled, "Baby Frank, the zoo pet." They didn't note that his tail has apparently been bitten off.
Vintage Buffalo Zoo--Buffalo, New York
This picture baffles me. I don't know if they floated the balloons by to add some "color or gaiety" to an otherwise bleak scene, or if it was a way to get the bear standing on his hind legs for the picture?
Vintage Buffalo Zoo--Buffalo, New York
This photo clearly illustrates Dr. Hedigers thoughts about "flight distance."
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Looks like Gary Miller. He had a really nic fast paced 3 act with the Point Defiance zoo Africans years ago. He left there to become Disney's elephant manager. When he got the job at Taronga, they sent him to one of the camps in Thailand to work with the mahouts and pick three elephants that he wanted for Taronga and a few more for the other Aussie zoos. I was working at Ringling's CEC at the time and got to talk with about it. Sounded like a good deal.
Joey,
Wasn't there some issues with some elephants that came into Taronga last year?
Wade Burck
Wade, I beleive it was the standard AR protest hoo-haa, "Babies dragged from their mothers and tied with ropes, etc." That's about all I know. Maybe some of the Austrailian contributors to the blog could help with that.
wade yes taronga had a big battle
with animal fanatics and our rspca
trying to stop the elephants arriving in australia would have cost taronga zoo a fortune fighting these people who know nothing about elephants
Robert Perry
Australia
To Robert Perry,
What do you mean by these people(?) knowing anything about elephants? I don't think they know anything about anything, except how to raise money and hood-wink the public.
Bob Kitto
bob kitto
correct we used to say grow your own dope bury an animal libber or
animal fanatic.
Robert Perry
Australia
ps for a lot of people who know nothing a lot of people in high places listen to them and that is the sad part.