Posted May 22, 200718 yr Saw this on Sunrise this morning. It made me feel absolutely awful. http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1266775,00.html China's Zoos: 'Asylums For Animals' By Peter Sharp, China Correspondent Updated: 17:57, Tuesday May 22, 2007 China's zoos have been described as "insane asylums for animals" and a national disgrace, where live domestic pets are fed to lions and tigers for the entertainment of visitors. Animals are trained to perform tricksAnimal rights activists have told Sky News that in 10 years of monitoring animals' living conditions there has been "no improvement". Campaigner Dr John Wederburn said: "I come back to the same zoo four or five years later and the same animals are still trapped in the same tiny cage. "It's called zoo-chosis. The animals are simply driven out of their minds by the boredom." Stage shows, in which bears are trained to twirl sticks of fire and ride motorcycles, came in for particular criticism. At one zoo, a three-year-old bear was put in a dress and a harness to pull a car twice a day in front of the holiday crowds. Advertisement Meanwhile, a trip round the Harbin Wildlife Park in Northern China ends with a gruesome spectacle. The world's biggest breeding centre for Siberian tigers encourages visitors to buy domestic animals that will be fed live to the tigers. Special vending flaps are fitted on the tourist buses to allow visitors to feed chickens to the waiting tigers. A live chicken can be purchased for £2.60, while a cow costs £100. The authorities at the park say the tigers are being trained to be released back into the wild and argue that the fees charged for the live animals are used to support the park. Sky News' Peter Sharp reportsBut Dr Wederburn has described the practice as "medieval", while the World Society for the Protection of Animals also condemned it. Virginia McKenna, of the wildlife charity Born Free, said: "With the Olympic Games just a year away, China has a short window of opportunity to tackle these issues. "(It) faces the very real possibility that many of the millions of sports enthusiasts will return not with memories of the Olympic spectacle, nor of China's undoubted ancient civilisation and culture... but of the animal welfare horrors that still go on, causing such suffering, and offending us all."
May 22, 200718 yr Author The part in bold I find particularly awful, the video on the site is horrendous.
May 22, 200718 yr thats horrible :o its places like that which give zoos a bad name as some of them can be good for animals, like chester zoo which does the breeding programs, helps endangered animals and stuff like that Edited May 22, 200718 yr by pink_princess01
May 22, 200718 yr I don't like zoos at all, and would never go to one. The chicken thing doesn't seem that bad to me after what I've seen be done to chickens on those peta videos.
May 22, 200718 yr I saw the beginning of this on Sky News this morning. I had to turn over. :cry: :cry: :cry:
May 22, 200718 yr Author I just watched most of that www.meat.org video. It was horrible, seriously makes me think about becoming a veggie but I wouldn't have the will power. And besides, not all of the stuff we eat is treated like that... is it? :unsure:
May 22, 200718 yr Idiots, ive always seen zoo's as a pointless waste of money and cruel for keeping animals caged up in such a small enviroment for the entertainment of the viewing public, they don't care about the animals it's about money, animals belong in the wild not in some cage made by the vile ''human'' race, im sure if/when a race more powerful than us locked us up in cages on show we'd hate it. Let the animals go and make the most of their lives, it won't be long before they HAVE to go to zoos as their habitats have been destroyed cos the likes of the plastic celebs homes and pointless stores are replacing it.
May 22, 200718 yr And besides, not all of the stuff we eat is treated like that... is it? :unsure: Most of it is. Being a vegetarian is really easy, seriously.
May 22, 200718 yr I just watched most of that www.meat.org video. It was horrible, seriously makes me think about becoming a veggie but I wouldn't have the will power. And besides, not all of the stuff we eat is treated like that... is it? :unsure: That video is pretty shocking. Who do the human race think we are to do this, fine if people want them for meat but they force the animals to have horrid lives, you can say how its so bad for starving children in africa etc but is this not as bad? what have we become? i mean flippin hittin cows with electric rods just to move them, flippin hell and all those chickens kept in harsh conditions HIDEOUS
May 22, 200718 yr The worse one I've seen is a live cow thrown into a mincer. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was terrible.
May 22, 200718 yr Idiots, ive always seen zoo's as a pointless waste of money and cruel for keeping animals caged up in such a small enviroment for the entertainment of the viewing public, they don't care about the animals it's about money, animals belong in the wild not in some cage made by the vile ''human'' race, im sure if/when a race more powerful than us locked us up in cages on show we'd hate it. Let the animals go and make the most of their lives, it won't be long before they HAVE to go to zoos as their habitats have been destroyed cos the likes of the plastic celebs homes and pointless stores are replacing it. Conor were it not for zoos and the conservation programs in some zoos many many famous breeds of animals would become extinct, zoos play a vital role in avoiding extinction and breeding programs in zoos have worked wonders in preserving some great species. Animals are under threat in their natural habitat Conor like never before from hunting, global warming, poachers, killed for export to china for potions, carpets for the rich and famous and so on Zoos play an important role Conor and it is only right that kids should be able to see these animals at zoos as it helps build awareness of these breeds Sorry mate but you are wide of the mark
May 22, 200718 yr Conor were it not for zoos and the conservation programs in some zoos many many famous breeds of animals would become extinct, zoos play a vital role in avoiding extinction and breeding programs in zoos have worked wonders in preserving some great species. Animals are under threat in their natural habitat Conor like never before from hunting, global warming, poachers, killed for export to china for potions, carpets for the rich and famous and so on Zoos play an important role Conor and it is only right that kids should be able to see these animals at zoos as it helps build awareness of these breeds Sorry mate but you are wide of the mark agree with u there -_-
May 23, 200718 yr Zoos are a necessary evil, but the sheer cruelty on display here most definitely is not.... I've not even got a huge problem with the lions being fed live bait (because that's how they do things in the wild...), but to make a sport or entertainment out of it, and profit out of it as well... That's just plain sick....
May 23, 200718 yr Zoos do play an important part in conservation I agree but the way in which certain zoos choose to conduct themselves is certainly can be brought into question, London Zoo is, to me now, probably one of the worst zoos I have probably ever visited. You are charged huge prices for a poor quality zoo which looks like its stuck back in the 1960s. Many of the cages are in a poor condition and its hard to believe the animals are actually having a pleasant life there. What makes it worse is that there is such a minor emphasis on conservation there, it feels like such an undercurrent theme there. The zoo seems intent on pushing the WOW! factor of the place by pouring all their money into a flash guerrilla area whilst other areas go starved of cash because they aren't "cool" animals. I understand the zoo has to run itself as a business but it needs to find the right parameters between making money and teaching conservation to people. That said I do realise the zoo puts a large amount of money towards breeding projects internationally but it'd just be nice to see something about it in the zoo. A much better example of teaching conservation is Mexico Zoo which I visited last year, it was free entry and there seemed much more of an emphasis on teaching conservation; maybe London Zoo should attempt to get more of a deserving subsidy from the British government... Just a quick comment on the Chinese zoo situation, there's little you can do in a situation like that; the PEOPLE who are the ones who like seeing that sort of thing, we're obviously from a very different culture and there's may [or may not as the case may be..] develop to change their habits when it comes to animal treatment and what they perceive to be "right" and "wrong". Its obviously very "un-British" but it IS making money for tiger conservation at the same time. Non-the-less watching the video still upset me; I've been brought up to believe seeing/treating animals like that is wrong. Those people alas have not -_-
May 23, 200718 yr The worsting thing about China animal-wise is not the zoos, but the bear bile farms where twice a day every day, they make herbal medicines by bleeding bile slowly from the stomach of bears, who live to just half their life expectancy and are kept in cages not an inch bigger than their body size :cry:
May 23, 200718 yr Conor were it not for zoos and the conservation programs in some zoos many many famous breeds of animals would become extinct, zoos play a vital role in avoiding extinction and breeding programs in zoos have worked wonders in preserving some great species. Animals are under threat in their natural habitat Conor like never before from hunting, global warming, poachers, killed for export to china for potions, carpets for the rich and famous and so on Zoos play an important role Conor and it is only right that kids should be able to see these animals at zoos as it helps build awareness of these breeds Sorry mate but you are wide of the mark Well their habitats are being destroyed to put the zoo there anyway -_- I do agree with you but there's no reason to keep them locked up in small cages for the public to look at. It shouldn't of come to animals becoming extinct because of us anyway, but some animals will naturally become extinct anyway humans or not.
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