Well maybe the money involved in this transaction made Aspinall decide to sent them to Brazil?! Sorry but no animal was sent out of Brazil to Aspinall, so it was not a exchange and Belo Horizonte Zoo worked hard for 2-3 years to get enough money to make this deal possible and this was also a complain of the animal rights groups in Brazil, spending money with the gorilas and the zoo needing money for upgrade the whole facility! And I doubt AZA will allow that a male can be sent to Brazil...it gaves to much negative press about Idi/ Belo Horizonte and the deal with Aspinall!
I would question that .. very much, Sir! With anesthesia there always is a risk, however ... it is the general state of health of the individual that defines whether you can cope with it or not. In this case, I propose there is a health reason for the gorilla male - even though it was elderly at 38 - to die from an anesthesia. It sounds that either or both the vets at the zoo really have no clue in terms of wild animal health nor getting an autopsy right.
Kifaru!! The final autopsy was not made by the ZOO, but by a Team of Experts of Veterinary Sector of the Federal University of Minas Gerais! The Zoo stated that is was because of his health condition and well it was not accepted and a new autopsy was made and this was made public after the the autopsy runned by the university! Im sure the health condition played the biggest rule for no success of the anesthesic procedure, but the death cause was not the health condition but the anesthesic, maybe was not a good idea to do it at this time! Only that...and the seccond autopsy was a court decision asked by the Great Ape Project!
OK, some clarification ... for what went around. Thanx. What still stands is that the OP should not have happened in the first place given the bad health situation for the animal. Bad decision on local veterinary management perhaps.
Perhaps Kifaru! And be sure it was and is a big loss for the Zoo and Staff and well im also sure they made what they could do to save him! He was loved by all and I have some contact with the keeper of Idi and this loss was nothing easy for she and finally things happend every time in zoos around the world. I only hope they learned a lot from it and will take a correct decision in what to do from now with theier "gorilla program"!
More about the brazilian gorillas controversy: Kifta was found death in her enclosure yesterday. A preliminary report mention a intestinal infecction as possible cause. G1 - Companheira de Idi Amin, gorila que veio da Inglaterra morre em BH - notÃcias em Minas Gerais
Thankyou Eduardo for posting this, I am deeply saddened to hear this and now there is only Imbi. Please let us know if you hear anything else, I met Kifta on many occasions and she was lovely
Ok...no problem, will let you know!! Would be nice from Aspinall Foundation to take Imbi back urgently and maybe avoid the worst with her! Belo Horizonte Zoo is no place for her ( I know what im saying, very bad things already happened there) and this only confirms the commercial deal (sale) of this two gorilla girls to Belo Horizonte or they already wuld be back to Europe. Where they EEP registred?
Many news articles from the time they came to Brazil stated around R$ 440.000...around 220,000,00 USD in today exchange rate. And many animal rights groups complained about it because the zoo really need upgrades and 220,000,00 USD is a lot o money for brazilian standards.
Seems like very expensive Gorillas, but probably the only way BH could get hold of any females. I wonder if Howletts now regret this deal, given the old male and now one of the females has since died. But of course they got their money. I also now wonder if any, or all(?) of the other Howletts Gorillas that have gone to other Zoos in recent years were also sold like this for large sums of money? I guess it depends whether they have retained ownership or not.
Belo Horizonte Zoo is the owner of the last gorilla left here... And a more fresh news from yesterday. Belo Horizonte Municipality (owner of the zoo) confirmed yesterday that the Zoo is a focus of Visceral Leishmaniasis, with 7 cases confirmed in the animal collection by now. Brazilian Law is very clear about it: no treatment should be done, animals need to be euthanized! So the history will get more pages in the next days.
Gorillas must be in big groups for what I've read. Very sad that we keep killing them and taking them out of their natural environments.
Sheer stupidity. A vet can do wonders given the right investment, mind set and drugs available. The BH Municipality should be in the dock for this.
At Saturday (12/10), two new gorillas will be arriving in Belo Horizonte to join Imbi: Leon a male that it currently at Loro Parque and Lou Lou from Howlets. This time no news about how the deal was made! Let hope the best for this two individuals and for Imbi, as long again a big mistake was made by sending more individuals to Brazil!
