UK insurance group Animal Friends Insurance give grant to animal-rights group

UK insurance group Animal Friends Insurance give grant £8000 to animal-rights group The Captive Animals Protection Society (CAPS).

CAPS receives grant to fund investigation work | CAPS

It should be noted that CAPS is opposed to all UK zoos.

Zoos | CAPS

 

Waiting for first success in animal-friendly Tiger eating tofu.

 

I'm sorry that monkey eating eagles are so rare, but I would be really worried if a tiger eating tofu existed

Alan

 

I must admit that £8,000 isn't a lot of money, especially when it's compared to the cost of some zoo enclosures. One of my friends is a member of CAPS and I've had a look at their magazines. I sent an e-mail to CAPS a year ago and the respondent agreed with some of my comments, but not with others.

Many years ago, Gerald Durrell said that there would be no need for zoos in an ideal world, as there would be no endangered animal species. The reality is that there are many endangered species and zoos have helped to save some of them, although many zoos keep some species more for commercial reasons, rather than conservation reasons.

Organisations like CAPS and Born Free have helped to show problems with keeping some animals in captivity. These include stereotyped behaviour in polar bears and bare, cramped enclosures. Unfortunately, there is always the problem with what would happen if zoos did close down. I remember an episode of 'Animal Squad', where Knaresborough Zoo closed down. Most of the animals were rehoused, but two bears were killed and thrown on a skip - it was one of the saddest scenes I've seen on TV.

When London Zoo was threatened with closure 20 years ago, I was told that Virginia McKenna was seen crying outside the zoo. "What's going to happen to all the animals?" As one of the major objectives of Born Free and Zoo Check was to close down London Zoo, following the death of Pole-Pole, this seemed rather hypocritical. The fact is that if the zoos closed down, there wouldn't be space in sanctuaries to look after the animals and there aren't vast areas of protected natural habitat to release the animals into, even if all the animals could adapt to living independently.

I can't really see £8,000 going a long way to try and close down zoos, but I think it is interesting to look at alternative points of view, even if I don't agree with them, rather than just listening to the views of one side.

 

In a small, overcrowded country like the UK if we had no zoos virtually no wild reptiles would be seen easily, and very few wild mammals. Birds alone are easily visible, and even then we've made a pretty good job of driving out the big and the spectacular.

If it is true that we will only love what we experience, then zoos in the UK are vitally important in engaging the bulk of the population with wild nature, which otherwise would be confined to their TV screens.

 

I agree with this entirely, the highlight of my visit to Shepreth on Saturday was the Pine Marten, which I watched for ages, long after my daughter hd got fed up & wandered off! I doubt many people have seen one in the wild, and probably the vast majority wouldnt be interested in them or conserving habitats etc if they hadn't seen one in a zoo.

 

It represents a sizeable chunk (about 9%) of CAPS annual income.

It isn't, but I'm always astounded how much media attention they get for an organisation with seemingly little public support (as evidenced by the low level of income). They definitely know how to play the media (and pet insurance companies).

 

Animal Friends insurance, another firm i'm adding to my growing list of firms that will not get a penny out of me.