greater Vancouver zoo charged with animal cruelty
Date: May 31, 2006
Crown Counsel has laid formal charges pursuant to the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act against the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove for allegedly failing to provide proper housing for Hazina, a baby hippo acquired by the zoo in October 2004. It is the first time that a major Canadian zoo has been charged with animal cruelty.
Hazina, the engaging baby hippo who was featured in a popular TELUS Christmas advertising campaign, has been kept at the zoo for the past 19 months in shelter considered by the BC SPCA to be inadequate. (In May 2004 the Greater Vancouver Zoo lost it accreditation from the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums due to the substandard facilities it provided for other hippos in its care, who have since died).
"Activities at the Greater Vancouver Zoo have been monitored by animal welfare groups for some time, but the SPCA's investigation intensified in November 2005 after officials from the Vancouver Humane Society (VHS) contacted us with their increased concerns about Hazina's living conditions," said Marcie Moriarty, General Manager of Cruelty Investigations for the BC SPCA. Hazina has been held indoors in a temporary concrete pen for the past 19 months, despite repeated promises from the zoo that the construction of a proper indoor-outdoor hippo enclosure was imminent. The BC SPCA's investigation resulted in a recommendation for charges against the zoo, which was submitted to Crown Counsel in January.
"We're extremely pleased with the BC SPCA's action," says VHS spokesperson Peter Fricker. "VHS has repeatedly criticized the zoo for its treatment of Hazina and we're glad they are being held to account. Keeping an animal in solitary confinement for 19 months can't be right." Fricker said the zoo had a dubious record, including the public uproar over its treatment of Tina the elephant and a previous investigation into its animal care standards by the provincial government in 1994. The facts surrounding the controversies gained considerable notoriety at the time.
Eileen Drever, the BC SPCA Senior Animal Protection Officer in charge of the investigation, says the Society based its recommendation for charges on a number of factors. "One of our primary concerns with Hazina is that she has been held in a temporary pen for so long with only a two-foot-deep wading pool," says Drever. "Because of their tremendous weight, hippopotamuses need the buoyancy of water in order to relieve the pressure on their joints. As Hazina has grown she has not been able to float in the shallow pool and her time outside the pool was spent standing on concrete." Hazina's current weight is estimated to be more than 1,000 pounds.
Drever adds that the BC SPCA is also concerned that Hazina has not been outdoors in a year and seven months, has not been able to graze for that period of time and has been living in isolation, deprived of social interaction with her species. "During our investigation we issued a number of orders for action to improve Hazina's situation, such as adding rubber matting to the floor of her pen to reduce the stress on her joints," says Drever. "We investigated options for removing Hazina from the zoo but the veterinary experts we consulted agreed that transporting her would subject her to even more stress."
Faced with increasing pressure from animal welfare groups, the zoo has promised that Hazina will be housed in a new facility next month. "We are pleased that a proper facility has finally been constructed, but that does not negate the responsibility that the zoo has had for the past 19 months to properly care for Hazina or any other animal that they purchase," says Moriarty. "The charges that have been laid relate to what, in the BC SPCA's opinion, is the substandard care to which Hazina has been subjected since she was acquired by the zoo in 2004."
This is not the first time that the Greater Vancouver Zoo has drawn well-publicized criticism from animal welfare groups for its care of hippos. In 1983 the zoo was at the centre of controversy after two hippos in its care fell through the ice and drowned after being given access to a frozen outdoor pond. Two other hippos, Gertrude and Harvey have also died at the zoo since 2004. Both were in their twenties when they died, about half the life span of the average hippopotamus in captivity. In addition to housing Hazina, zoo officials are currently in the process of obtaining a second hippopotamus.
