It looks as though the former director of the tierpark Bernhard Blaszkiewitz is in a spot of bother at the moment, the German press are smelling blood in the water and are starting to circle. Knut zoo accused of selling its animals - Times Online
I can't see it the pygmy hippo are studbook registered and i think the Himalayan bears have a European studbook, and the tierpark would have to notify the studbook keepers regarding moving these animals. But what is they say no smoke without fire?
I dont think it happened in the way the article discribed though as kiang says something suspicious must have happened
The management of the Animal Park Berlin openly admits that they sell surplus animals to the german animal dealer Mr. Bode. That is no secret and they mention in every yearbook what animals they sold to Bode each year. This includes bears, tigers, jaguars, leopards, pygmy hippo, wolves, takins, antilopes, deer, monekys, male hybrid girafes... everything that can`t be placed in other zoos. The Animal Park is breeding all kind of animals which other zoo`s don`t breed in the first place. Hybrid giraffes and leopards for example. They breed everything, and they also breed EEP animals without recommendations of the EEP (tigers for example). You don`t need to bother about surplus animals if you can give them all to a dealer who will take care of the issue. It is not known what has happened to all these animals (dozends each year, and the relationship with the dealer is ongoing). Many are probably sold to other zoos and smaller animals parks in Germany and the surrounding countries. Some may have ended up at private owners. Others in circusses, in labs, maybe really in the slaugtherhouse? No one knows. The director of the Berlin zoos openly admits that he does not care. Make your own mind if you think this is ok. I believe it is totally unacceptable from an ethical point of view. A zoo is responsible for the animals they breed. And if they can`t place them, they should stop breeding them. But not selling them to a dealer who will sell them to circusses, labs, and substandard zoos around the world. NO.
I agree, a zoo can't claim to be a place of conservation if it goes around screwing up blood lines and selling animals on to circusses etc. I wonder if this is where Knut will end up once the buzz has died down...
Thats very irresposible of him. Breeding Tigers and other endangered animals when there not suposed to is just plain laziness. They should easily be able to stop animals like Hippos and Tigers breeding.
The only Tigers in Berlin breeding are the Amur-Tigers, and they are not in the EEP, so its the Tierparks call if they do or not. In the Tierpark was always just one Pigm-Hippo, in the Zoo is a breeding pair. Many Animals go to Bode, not just from Berlin. I think at least 1/3 of the German, Netherlands and Tschech Zoos have contact with him. But Bode tries at least to get these animals a new home. In many Zoos f.E. in Danmark the zoos themselves kill the animals whom are to much...
Can somebody explain: if Berlin zoo (like many other zoos) pass their animal to Bode, do they have any influence what happens later to them? Especially, if second zoo sells them to 3rd or 4th institutuion? How long it takes to search for a new home for zoo animal? I understand that Berlin zoo, which breeds and exchanges several hundreds of animals yearly, cannot look for home itself?
And we stand by that! If you have ever seen Nykobing Falster Zoo's tiger cage, you would agree that it was better for that tiger to have been put to sleep than loose it's tail due to incompetence, plus living in that dumb. A few years ago, a TV station in Denmark did a documentary where they posed as private persons interested in purchasing a tiger cub. They got an offer from animal dealers in Germany that showed up with a baby tiger in their trunk. They also offered to aquire more exotic animals. They were then arrested, and the tiger now lives in Knuthenborg Safaripark. And even though the zoos have to kill some of their animals, they don't go to waste. Odense Zoo educates young children by dissecting the animals that they have euthanized, such as a lion and seal. I also think it's a problem that the general German public can't handle the thought of cute animals being euthanized by the zoos, such as polar bears. When Aalborg Zoo rebuilt their polar bear enclosure in 1999, their 3 polar bears went on holiday in Duisburg Zoo. There lived a 28 year old female that suffered from many age-related problems. The zoo was affraid of putting her to sleep, because of the public outcry that it would cause. Instead, Aalborg Zoo agreed to take her home with them, and after 6 months in Aalborg her pains had gotten so bad, that she was finally put to rest. Better to euthanize an animal than sell it to some second-grade zoo or private person that will treat it poorly, worsening it's life conditions.
I do not like putting healthy animals to sleep because there is no space for them. Actually, I hate it. But I think selling animals to dealers without bothering what happens to them and that they may end up in laboratories or in circusses, spending many years in awful conditions, is the worst solution. I think contraception is the best solution when it comes to primates, big cats, bears, giraffes, hippos ect, while I have no problem with breeding deer and antilopes and animals like this for feeding them to the big cats (otherwise, cattle and horses would die for them, so I can`t see much of a difference - it`s just natural for antilopes to end up as "lion lunch"...). But that is a different topic and if we want to discuss that, I opt for opening a new thread.
there already is one yassa, discussing the ethics behind euthanasia as a population management tool. essentially, i think the need for it only highlights a poor degree of management, planning and prioritising on the zoos part. i have little respect for zoos who regularly find the need to employ the euthanasia method or the services of animal dealers. in my opinion a zoo who breeds and thus creates an animal has an obligation to its care and thus a responsibility to ensure it ends up in a good home, whether it stay at its birth zoo or move to another.
Not only zoos have an obligation to the animals they produce. I am an aviculturist who is going to give up breeding African lovebirds because no one wants to buy them to keep in aviaries and I refuse to produce large numbers of young birds to live their lives in crummy little cages. (I hate the pet bird trade!)
This is a vicious circle and Berlin (or any other zoo that does this) are basically creating a market and supporting a 'middle-man' system which makes money from endangered wild animals. Berlin apparently provides animals 'that can't be place in other zoos' to a third party who then 'places them in other zoos' for a charge.... At least in this case the animals may end up in an OK home. Unfortunately I suspect the big cats and some other animals are worth more as a fur than alive. Its just not acceptable........
It seems mr Blaszkiewitz just can't help getting into trouble at the moment Berlin Zoo chief threatened over kitten killings | World | Reuters
BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Shock at polar bear's carp kill I thought this could go in here... Surely that news is anthropomorphizing at its very worst, I mean Polar Bears don't kill fish in the wild do they?
