Howletts Wild Animal Park Misinformation at Howletts

A bit more from Aspers today..we are all guilty of wanting to see animals stuck in prison with no hope of parole...good always triumphs over evil and in 30 years zoos will be extinct. Its nothing to do with competition as Jennings proposes - quite simply he was lumbered by his father and wants no part of it all. Ive asked him to have at least some backbone and resign from EAZA if that is his viewpoint. This thread started with Sooty saying he really loves Howletts...not me ,i will never go to that place or Port Lympne ever again. Deal with the devil ? Not likely! Unlike Aspinall himself im a man of principle.

 

Have you contacted EAZA? - I would guess either their general Council, or Membership and Ethics Committee which is certainly very active in many apparently much more minor issues... Their formal written response would perhaps make an interesting follow-up in ZG?

 

Well EAZA take the magazine by exchange,whether anyone reads it is quite another matter - ive had yet another email from him(must be a slow day at Howletts)..accusing me of being a petit zooreucrat(his term), who stands for everything he despises - that must be every pro-zoo person on this chatroom presumably.

 

Well, at least one good thing has come out of this: a great new word!

 

Perhaps he means a petty zooreucrat? You're not exactly petit...
Well, at least we now all know what he really thinks of us.

 

Today I saw a photo of his wife kissing and cuddling young gorilla, Yo-yo, who is being hand-reared until she can be 'rewilded in Africa'. It is alleged that the couple describe the animals at Howletts as their children. Do as I say, not as I do.

 

It's been a bit of a slow two months everywhere, I think! - since it started raining on 21st September...
I would suggest that there is a big difference in seeing a copy lying on a coffee-table, and being asked formally for their position on what you have been asked to print.

 

Explain, I figured you need at least a Zoo tech background …, right?

 

Wrong. Every organisation is different and will have their own regulations, but as I said there are no mandatory requirements. Some keepers have degrees, some have other equal (or lower) qualifications, some have nothing...

 

Out of curiosity , what do you think his father would have made of Damian's statements ?

I'm actually very glad to hear that this is the case

 

I imagine it is like most things in life - qualifications might get you through the door more easily for an interview but if you've shown actual dedication and your passion / willingness to build experience & learn through volunteering or working your way up from the very bottom, that will stand you in good stead. That kind of demonstrable attitude could be worth as much, if not more than many qualifications.

 

It was 11 years ago when I posted the starting comments on this thread! I will gladly admit that I really did love both Howletts and Port Lympne, when I first started visiting them in the mid 1980s. But over the past few years, every one of DA’s pronouncements has made me firmer in my resolve to not go near the places again, until he has - hopefully - moved on, and they have been returned to more enlightened stewardship. I can’t see it myself, but I’ll remain hopeful....

 

11 YEARS AGO!....I didnt notice, apologies to my good friend for doubting his resolve. I thought ,with Beaver Waterworld going under that he had found a new, reasonably local, alternative to the bittersweet "entertainment" that is Portsmouth Football Club... and Damian`s non-zoo, was it. Should have known better...football-wise his choices are diabolical,but zoo-wise he is indeed wise!

 

I missed that too... but only those of us of a certain age can blame it on the tiny pale grey font...

 

Well he was pretty belligerent when he was alive at the best of times, especially concerning the devil-may-care attitude he had towards the safety of his keepers!

No doubt the old man’s looking favourably down on Damo. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as they say!

 

Well I get that they have both been considered as "outsiders" ,"mavericks" and "rebels" by the zoo establishment but wouldn't he disapprove of the way his son disparages zoos (even his own apparently) and when it comes to Damian's comments about the future of the parks he owns ?

It seems to me (from the little I know about him) that his father had a deep conviction that zoos would be the last refuge of endangered species in the face of the biodiversity crisis and extinction and so these institutions had to innovate and meet this challenge head on. Conversely his son seems to be totally jaded , cynical and strangely torn about the whole concept of a zoo and of owning one.

The cynicism is ok IMO , many of us are tired of the complacency and mediocrity of the comfortable established order of things and the old boys network in zoos and conservation. Furthermore many of us want to shake it up and rock the boat because we know that things have to change for the sake of conservation of biodiversity. But the difference is that even so most of us (like his father I imagine) out of necessity recognise the need for zoos. Moreover, most of us are painfully aware that this need is only going to grow in the future and don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.