there is probably a better place to put this but I cant find aywhere so if anyone does feel free to move it (can you do that?) Since the RSPCA released their findings saying that the zoo did nothing wrong to cause Kua the Rhino's death other animal rights grops have come out saying that the sand in her gut is evidence that the zoo stuffed up. it just annoys me how gropus like the greens called for this report to be conducted byt the RSPCA only to turn around and ignore what it has to say and continue to claim that the zoo is responsible for the death. What is it going to tak eto convince them that the Zoo is in fact at no foult at all??? (p.s the new baby giraffe at Taronga is so very very cute!)
is that what happened. i read something in the ARAZPA newsletter about the zoos and teh RSPCA engaging a bit more with eachother. the RSPCA and greens are important organisations in my opinion. i respect what they do, a great deal, but i don't like it when we see them blatently lashing out at zoos in a very flippant manner. firstly the greens should avoid taking up animal welfare issues. not all environmentalists are animal liberationists as well. i don't think it helps their cause so much as it just further enscribes the image of them as crazed socialist bums in the eyes of people leaning to the right. as for the RSPCA - the biggest joke to me was the zoo vs RSPCA on the issue of elephants. here we have two organisations, both who should animal experts, twisting the facts on either side to suit there own agenda. in the end speeled off alot of rubbish. it was quite pathetic in my opinion. zoos have done an aweful lot to become what they are today. but they still have a lot further to go. even from an animal welfare perspective. it'd be nice if the zoos and the RSPCA worked together on this, rather than against, to establish a even better set of standards and a healthier respect for eachothers mission. oh and its my opinion that the zoo was at fault in kua's death. but they shouldn't be held accountable. people make mistakes and this was not a straight forward issue of negligence. i'm sure the keepers feel bad enough as it is. unless its a known fact amongst the profession that rhinos are prone to ingesting sand and dying, then i see it as very disasterous, but an accident nonetheless.
Terrified, sick and starved in the zoo - the final days of a rare, pregnant rhino... - Times Online this is a report just out from a Uk paper. there are really scathing of the Zoo and i think attack the zoo a lot more then the local papers. its an interesting read though and the lady who has commented it at the bottom says that the zoo's vet (Dr Larry Vouglnest) doesnt seem like a very nice man well all the times ive talked to him he has seemed perfectly friendly and its a bit rich of her to say that when she has probably never meet him and lives on the other side of the world..
I think it is rather sad that some individuals are prone to blacklisting their perceived "opponents" when it comes to the zoo versus wild animals debate. It is defamatory to appear to present professional zoos as a shady world where a lot of untoward happens. At the time of the rhino's death, the Greens described her being in an emaciated state. How on earth could the Greens be an authority on rhino biology, I ask you! The spokesperson should be ashamed of him-herself to even dare to make such assumptions. They are hardly experts on wild animal health and zoo husbandry. The worst thing about it is that after the RSPCA's verdict on the matter, they did not publicly appologize for their past behaviour. If it had been people and not wild animals/zoos, a defamation trial would have proceeded. Does Oz have a regulatory body for zoos and wild animal welfare/husbandry at all? If not I urge everyone oncemore to consider that an independent review board be set up - made up of experts in wild animal husbandry and management to oversee zoos - in Oz. Perhaps both the major zoological societies - Victoria and the Zoological Parks Board of NSW - could associate themselves with the RSPCA to make this happen.
Wow, that article is so blatantly skewed it reeks. I actually hate anthropomorphism; a lot of people look at animals at a zoo and say they look sad. Can these people read animal minds? I certainly don't know anyone who can. Just because the animal is sitting there doing noting means it is sad? And has the writer of the article actually seen a rhino smile? If he has, please tell me, i would love to see it. Rhinos almost always LOOK depressed, but that doesn't mean they are depressed. Do animals even experience depression? No one can say for sure. The article mentioned Kua had a "sand-based bed'. That's a very unusual substrate to use for bedding.
Vale Kua Did Kue have to die? If she had been kept at Western Plains would she be alive today? Very likely YES! Rhinos are range animals, travelling large distances each day to find food. They are designed to travel kilometres, not pace a small yard the size of a surburban house block. They are evolved to live on diets high in fibre and to graze for long periods each day. Taronga's own fact sheets on rhinos says they need to eat large amounts of fibre. The passage of large amounts of fibre helps to keep the gastro-intestinal tract free of sand and dirt, it acts just like metamucil which we take to help keep us regular. Diets of grasses and leaves are high in firbe but low in many nutrients so the animals have to eat a lot of them to get the nutrition they need (grazing for over 12 hours per day at least). Their stomachs are evolved to cope with this so they continuously secrete the digestive juices, principally sulphuric acid, plus other enzymes to break down the food mass which is then passed into the small and then large intestines for fermentation to ensure the last molcule of nutrients are extracted. What life did Kua have? Put on a diet because she was apparently gaining weight, (imagine how undernourished her calf would have potentially been if she hadn't died) her empty stomach continuously secreting acid giving her a stomach ache (think a bad and ongoing case of indigestion), she has nowhere to hide, nowhere to roam , she eats her bedding in a desperate attempt to relieve the pain in her stomach. And Taronga's vet apparently says it doesn't matter where the sand came from. Surely he cares enough to make sure that none other of their large herbivores (zebras, camels, deer, etc etc) suffer the same fate. That said however, he is sadly probably right when he says sand impactions are common in a zoo environment such as Taronga, because the environment itself prevents the animals from roaming, grazing and exercising as they are evolved to do. I have no doubt that the staff and vets of Taronga Zoo thought they were acting in the best interests of Kua, however the animal died from a preventable cause and as a direct result of being shipped across the world and kept in an environment which severely reduced her ability to live as nature intended-as a free roaming, wild herbivore. It is not good enough for the staff and managers of the Zoo, which is in receipt of large sums of NSW tax payer's money to complain about their treatment in the media. The RSPCA is not much better and both organizations should, in the interest of ensuring that if there are failings in their management processes, be prepared to respond appropriately to concerns from the public, the media and organisations such as the Greens. As a starting point, if they truly believe, as they say, that animal conservation is their primary goal, and public entertainment/education a secondary one, Taronga Zoo should not house animals such as Kua or elephants or any large free ranging herbivores. Western Plains Zoo is the appropriate home for these animals because it at least allows them lives that approximate what they would experience in the wild. RIP Kua
accidents happen, and this was a very sad one, kua was waiting at taronga for western plains to complete there exhibit, and it was completed, and final management issues had to be resolved. this is a very common condition in rhino as has been expressed, but could it have been stopped? as you said yes probably, but not just due to moving to wpz, remeber she was pregnant, and in small zoo such as taronga, indian rhino do have excessive weight gain, even dora had it, and at wpz, and they both had special diets, the only reason kua ended up eating it was due to she needed extra food for her developing feotus. if the zoo knew she was pregnent, her diet would have been adjusted accordingly. the afct is that she was sexually im-mature at time of export, when shhe was just 2 and a bit years old, it is not common for a rhino to fall pregenent, so the zoo would have had no idea. remeber there are many issues at taronga and western plains zoo that could have potentially halted the move, such as dora, was an extremely sick animal, so all resources were put into him, and it was seen as bvest that she was at taronga, as a young maturing male would find a beautiful girl like kua irresistable, and the added stress would not be needed. western plains has just invested 350 000 in building a new area of indian rhino, which is huge, so they defintally are committed to the program. but i tell you know there are many reasons, all very good reasons for animal welfare, why she wasnt moved to wpz earlier. it is very sad time for both zoos, maybe things could have been done in other ways, but ultimately, this sad thing ahs happened, a totally natural occurance
Freetoroam. I think that you forget that Kua was destined to go to Western Plains. Taronga was and is a holding place for animals on their way their, ie Dora. There were mitigating factors that meant that Kua couldn't be sent on straight away. Honestly i think that you are being a bit harsh.
jay i agree, and we have to think atronga in the last 5 years has held 2 other rhino long term, dora was there for about a year, and kwannza, a balck rhino, for nearly 3 i beleive, all in the same exhibit! we have to analyse the situation, all 3 rhino were on a a similar diet, taht was controlled. as we know, in captivity many animals are prone to excessive weight gain. the only reason kua was different is because she was pregnent and we didnt know it. now think roam to freedom, taronga and western plains ahve kept many rhino oevr the years, and they7 knwo how to look after them. i mean as you would probaably know, western plains keeps 10 whites, 1 indian and about 10 or so blacks, making them one of the biggest holders of rhino in the world. they are experts, and the best was done to help kua. things happen, abd while it's really sad, nothing more could have been done.
In fact it's 49 years ago this month that Taronga first bred the black rhino, which was widely acclaimed internationally. (Didn't happen too often back then.) They went on to breed a couple more after that, I believe. The zoo director put the success down to the feeding of vitamin E supplements. When he described at an international conference how the vitamin E was fed to the rhinos spread on scones, a lot of the foreign zoo directors didn't understand - they didn't know what a scone was.
see our zoos do great stuff, with very dedicated staff, dont forget western plains have breed more than 20 rhino, 7 in the last 5 or so years.
free-to-roam, i agree here that you sort of missed the point. you will get no arguments from me in regards to taronga's unsuitability for large herbivores. elephants, rhinos, giraffes - to generalise a bit, none of them are really suitable for small city zoos, especially not one with the topography of taronga. but like everyone here has said. kua was only in quarrentine at taronga. she was always destined for WPZ, where all the zoos other rhino are kept. i have said before that the zoo is responsible for kua's death. of course they are. they cared for her. but unless you actually work for the zoo and were directly part of the management of this animal, you just don't know what happened. i suspect quite a few people from both taronga and san diego zoos, from directors, vets to keepers, are all kicking themselves in the head over this...
