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Worst enclosure photo on Zoochat

Discussion in 'Animal Photography' started by nanoboy, 23 May 2012.

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  1. nanoboy

    nanoboy Well-Known Member

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    And a lot of the comments on this thread are about just that: not enjoying watching it. Similarly, I am not a badminton expert, but I am well within my rights to say that some of the games (like the disqualification ones) were the worst games I ever saw.
     
    nanoboy, 2 Aug 2012
    #81
  2. Ituri

    Ituri Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Another flaw in your comparison is that rarely does a badminton game have any impact on the well-being of a life form. You can say "that was a lousy badminton game" and you're not going to get quoted in an injunction against the player who played lousily. There is a lot less at stake. Nobody will use your words to try and shut down the game of badminton.

    So, if we are going to be quoted by the animal rights folks, I'd prefer they be using fully informed opinions, rather than the opinions of someone who has never even set foot on the same continent as the animal exhibit in question. (Once again, this is a generalization, not singling anybody out)
     
    Ituri, 2 Aug 2012
    #82
  3. PAT

    PAT Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    I agree with you on this. The fact that an exhibit could be worse, and there are examples of worse, doesn't make it better.
     
    PAT, 2 Aug 2012
    #83
  4. nanoboy

    nanoboy Well-Known Member

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    A slight deviation here, but am I missing something here? Do animal rights folks come on this website and quote the opinions of nameless, faceless folks to get zoos shut down?
     
    nanoboy, 2 Aug 2012
    #84
  5. Ituri

    Ituri Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    Not specifically from this site that I know of, but some are known for trawling the Internet for such opinions.
     
    Ituri, 2 Aug 2012
    #85
  6. ceph

    ceph Member

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    ceph, 2 Aug 2012
    #86
  7. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    it is quite correct that generally speaking it is easy to misinterpret a single photo of an exhibit, but this specific one is not an isolated example from the Cincinnati reptile house, there are a number of similarly small tanks shown in the gallery. And as nanoboy rightly pointed out in response to your post, while there may be errors of interpretation in some photos it is equally easy to get a very accurate idea of the exhibit space in other photos where the boundaries of the cage are visible and most importantly when there is an animal in the photo for scale (a good example of both sides of this is the puma cage at the RSCC in the UK: the cage by itself looks really tiny but from the photo with the puma inside it is seen to actually be considerably larger than it would otherwise appear). Sort of the other side of your argument, re: "Is it a temporary situation? Is it an education animal that is rotated out of that space frequently?", I find that irrelevant. The tank is still too small, and it is on display to the public in this cage (see my comments below with regards to that).

    I think the best that can be said is that at least the zoo is (presumably) endeavouring to rectify the situation.

    I don't see how that assessment of size is possible: you can clearly see the back, the front, and both sides of the tank, and the snake itself is there for scale! I have no doubt there are many much worse snake tanks out there (of which I shudder to think), but that makes not one bit of difference to the suitability of this tank. As Ituri said just above, having worse cages in existence does not make a bad cage acceptable! I've said it many times on Zoochat but I abhor the way snakes in particular are very often crammed into tiny tanks, often even shorter in length than the snake's body, and the practice is actually defended by snake keepers (usually with a statement something along the lines of "snakes don't need room" or "snakes feel safer in tiny cages" or whatever). It seems much worse when zoos do it however because they are supposed to be engendering awe and appreciation for animals, and how is sticking them in a tiny box doing that?
     
    Chlidonias, 2 Aug 2012
    #87
  8. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I think it's fair to point out that we have no snakes in NZ, so while I have years of experience with other types of reptiles (lizards, chelonians and tuatara) I have no direct experience with keeping snakes. Only theoretical knowledge based on what I know of reptiles and having seen how snakes act in the wild (in Asia and Australia), the latter of which should always be the basis for how any animal is kept and displayed in captivity.
     
    Chlidonias, 2 Aug 2012
    #88
  9. Jarkari

    Jarkari Well-Known Member 15+ year member

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    A court is not going to use a quote by someone who has said himself has no qualifications or experience.

    Everyone has an opinion and is entitled to share that as nanoboy stated. We are getting closer and closer to becoming mindless drones that say only what has been approved.
     
    Jarkari, 2 Aug 2012
    #89
  10. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    these are probably the worst zoos in the world

    eagle heights(uk)
    angkor zoo(cambodia)
    GuZoo(canada)
    capital of texas zoo (us)
    las vegas zoo(us)
    giza zoo(egypt)
    alexandria zoo(egypt)
    abijan zoo(ivory coast)
    medan zoo(indonesia)
    surabaya zoo(indonesia)

    sorry but I cant attach links.
     
    epickoala123, 14 Nov 2012
    #90
  11. zoogiraffe

    zoogiraffe Well-Known Member

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    Just out of interest how many of the collections,that you have listed have you actually visited?

    As I have visited Eagle heights in the UK and will say,yes the place isn't good but its not the worst place in the UK by a long shot!!
     
    zoogiraffe, 18 Nov 2012
    #91
  12. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    evrything at colombo zoo in sri lanka
     
    epickoala123, 21 Nov 2012
    #92
  13. devilfish

    devilfish Well-Known Member

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    I'm very glad that you couldn't attach links!

    I really, really don't like this list. [And at least a couple of those zoos are now closed.] Like zoogiraffe I'm not sure how you came to these conclusions.
    Just reading this thread properly would have given you a better idea of where to look - zoochatter Chlidonias, for example, lists three zoos worse than Medan, and only one of those makes your list. I've visited three zoos on your list and I completely disagree.

    Despite one of my photos being linked on the opening post, I've been ignoring this thread because I don't agree that it could be particularly useful. I feel that it could potentially be very dangerous, but at best it wouldn't make for pleasant viewing.

    I'm responsible for uploading more than 99% of the photos in the 'Egypt' gallery, and I assume that some of them had a small role in the creation of your list. Without going into my reasoning (which has been voiced elsewhere), I think we ought to view input from different countries as enriching knowledge - there's a lot of good/interesting stuff in those galleries too.

    Ultimately you're welcome to draw your own conclusions; I just ask that you widen your sources, or at least open the question for others to help you develop a more accurate, better-informed list.
     
    devilfish, 22 Nov 2012
    #93
  14. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    I was going to reply to epickoala's posts earlier today and typed half a reply and then thought why bother. What I was going to say to her was basically not to judge an entire zoo on a few photos she chose to view. The Medan Zoo is nowhere near the worst zoo in the world: apart for its awful primate cells, most of its enclosures are quite adequate or even good. The Angkor Zoo doesn't even exist any more apparently.

    I have no problem condemning individual cages in zoos from the photos in the thread, but to say a zoo is the worst in the world based on a few photos is just nonsense. (Although I don't think I've ever seen a good photo of GuZoo, and it does seem widely considered to be absolutely appalling).
     
    Chlidonias, 22 Nov 2012
    #94
  15. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    ThylacineAlive, 16 Dec 2012
    #95
  16. elefante

    elefante Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    The Boise Zoo has some pretty bad primate enclosures. The Hogle Zoo's giraffe house is a dusty, depressing exhibit and the gorilla and orangutan indoor enclosures look like prison cells.
     
    elefante, 16 Dec 2012
    #96
  17. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    Post links.

    ~Thylo:cool:
     
    ThylacineAlive, 16 Dec 2012
    #97
  18. ThylacineAlive

    ThylacineAlive Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    ThylacineAlive, 16 Dec 2012
    #98
  19. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    medan zoo
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 16 Dec 2012
    epickoala123, 16 Dec 2012
    #99
  20. epickoala123

    epickoala123 Well-Known Member 10+ year member

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    bukittinggi zoo
    [​IMG]
     
    epickoala123, 16 Dec 2012
    #100
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