Ticket Office
Friday, November 12, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
A Blog designed for discussion of topics related to, but not limited to, Circus, Zoos, Animal Training, and Animal Welfare/Husbandry. Sometimes opening up the dialog is the best starting point of all. And if for nothing else when people who agree and don't agree, get together and start discussing it, it will open up a lot of peoples minds. Debate and discussion even amongst themselves opens a window where there wasn't one before.
The Circus "NO SPIN ZONE"
Relevent Stops On The Information Highway
- Custom Motorcycle Accessories by Ian
- Bob Cline's Sawdust and Spangles
- Buckles Blog
- Christophe Roullin Circus News
- Gary Robinsons Circus Blog
- Jamie Clubbs Blog
- Marco Kristens Circus Williams
- Ryan Easley's ShowMe Elephants
- Showbiz Daves Blog
- The Bartlett Society
- Thomas Bohners Cage Act History
- World of Dancing Horses
Manure Pile/Post Archive
Consultants
Wade G Burck
Adam R Burck
Eric G Burck
Adam R Burck
Eric G Burck
Posts
6 comments:
A very sad sight indeed! More poignent that it has just been left to rack and ruin, and vandalism.
From what I have read the zoo had good standards of husbandry and was very well maintained in it's heyday, though the enclosures do look extremely dated in this series of pictures.
Gary
Gary,
Like most things "animal" it depends on who wrote the press release you are reading. There are many, many opinions on what are "good standards of husbandry." But at least we learned they had a long, long time in which to try to get it right. Either that or they liked it so much back in Wombwells era, that they just decided to stay there. Being given a long time to change, but not wanting to, has been the Achilles tendon for many animal institutions in the last 50 years.
Wade
Gaz, That's because they are dated!
This zoo used to be terrific for bears - a world leader at one stage. But, time moves on and obviously passed this one by.
Speaking of bears - have you seen the photos of the Highland Wildlife Park's habitat for their Polar Bears? A great improvement on the old enclosure at Edinburgh. They have just introduced a new male to their resident female. The only other Polar in the UK is owned by Jim Clubb. She is an old bear seeing out her last years in luxury at Heythrop.
Steve,
That was my point, but I did not express this very well.
As Wade so passionately argues, the status quo is no longer acceptable in any area of animal keeping, and as we have seen in the circus and in zoos, without innovation and ongoing programmes of improvement things start to go very quickly down the pan.
I have seen pictures of the polar bear habitat, at the Highland Wildlife Park which is a long awaited improvement on that which was used at Edinburgh for so many years.
On the Edinburgh zoo website, it is stated that ‘it has been our intention to move Mercedes for a couple of years now... the existing enclosure was perfectly adequate, but public perception has always been that they would like to see her in a larger enclosure’.
Whilst the financial investment and resources required obviously played a major part in the decision to create the habitat at the Highland Wildlife Park, I wonder to what scale public demand played in the move?
I believe that whilst improvements must be constantly strived for, in the interests of the animals, the paying public are ultimately what keeps facilities running, and therefore a balance should be struck to ensure habitats also meet public expectation.
Sources of information are widely available, which can and admittedly are open to interpretation, or applied to inappropriate circumstances, but the population do have this information, which influences their opinion.
Perception of what is good or acceptable possibly has the greater influence and if the public do not like something it is highly unlikely they will go back or make recommendations to others.
I have heard the ‘they haven’t got much room’ comments, and whilst the species concerned may be perfectly adequately housed, the individual concerned has taken away this opinion of cramped conditions.
I find it very refreshing that some of those with a very strong background in circus, have now created better facilities for their animals than can be seen in many zoos (having seen pictures of Jim’s bear facility).
It is obvious that with vision, knowledge and understanding of the animals concerned, great improvements can and are being made.
Gary
Well no sooner had I forwarded my comments, than I came across this information.
I visited the small Knaresborough Zoo as a child and have very vague memories of this, but do remember even then to not being particularly impressed.
The Zoo was started in 1965 by Eddy Milborrow, a former circus ringmaster, who apparently worked with Fossetts circus, and later the zoo was taken over by Adrian Darley (Nik Nyoka). A good proportion of the animal stock came from Bellevue zoo following closure in 1977.
Interestingly, despite Knaresborough being slammed in an inspectors report for being ‘totally inadequate’, with hygiene and the standard of the enclosures both criticised, being run down with poor standards and having safety issues, ‘never the less the zoo remained popular while it remained open ‘
The zoo finally closed in 1985 after it was refused a licence by the local council. From the information sources I have looked at, it would seem finance played a big part in the decline of Knaresborough, suggesting that the facility was not as popular as is portrayed, or that perhaps it was just not well managed as a business.
Perhaps memories of better days cloud the judgement of the zoos supporters, as is evident on the ‘we miss Knaresborough Zoo’ site on facebook. Would these individuals continue to support such a facility if it had remained viable today? I would hope not!
This does not support, my comments made earlier, relating to public acceptance, perceptions, and opinions they take away, however these opinions are probably based on the zoos better days, and childhood memories.
I have noted in some of the pictures out there that the elephant Irma, is wearing head harness similar to that of the Fossetts elephant troupe, (pictured in the Sir Robert Fossetts’ Circus (carrying the heifer) poster LOL, and she was obviously trained to carry out various behaviours. Can anyone confirm if Irma came from Fossetts?
Steve and Gary,
Very good points from both of you gentlemen.
Gary, I think any business/industry that mistakes "sentimentality" for people wanted it to remain the same, are doomed to failure. I love old westerns of my youth, but I sure don't want to see a bunch of horse's crippled by trip wires. When I was a child I used to think the Bismark and Minot Zoo's were "Gardens of Eden" the most wonderful, beautiful animal havens in the world. I look at them today, after much improvement, and I can't understand what I saw in them, after I have been "around the world." The circus the same, what an adult saw as a child, is not what the adult want's to see today. Neither do the children of today, who have been "around the world." The old day's are wonderful to visit, but almost no one want's them to remain as they were. With animals it is a total no brainer.
Wade
Post a Comment