government called on to investigate zoo over baby hippo
Date: November 14, 2005
Hazina the baby hippo has languished alone in small barn for year
The Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) is calling on the BC Government to investigate the conditions of Hazina, the baby hippo held by the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove. The hippo has been kept alone in a small barn since she was acquired in October 2004, with no access to outdoor exercise and only a 2.4m by 2.4m pool to sit in. The zoo has still not built a long-promised new hippo facility.
“We are calling on the BC Ministry of Environment to investigate this appalling solitary confinement of a wild animal,” said VHS spokesperson Peter Fricker. “Hazina has spent a year alone in this dark shed, never feeling the sun on her back or having the chance to roam freely or to swim.”
Fricker said VHS had written to BC environment minister Barry Penner, asking that hippos be designated as wildlife under the BC Wildlife Act, thus affording her the act’s protection, including the ministry’s power to investigate the zoo’s keeping of animals under its BC government permit.
“There are no standards for the keeping of exotic animals in BC,” said Fricker. “However, some non-native species have been given the protection that indigenous animals have under the Wildlife Act. We’d like to see that protection extended to Hazina and other exotic animals held in zoos.
VHS and Zoocheck Canada criticized the zoo for acquiring Hazina in 2004 without having first built appropriate accommodation for her. Four hippos have died prematurely at the zoo since 1983.
