Outrage over zoo spending over R1.5 million to acquire new elephants
SAXONWOLD – Bat and ERT are angered over what they believe to be excessive and irregular expenditure on the acquisition of two new elephants.
Ban Animal Trading (Bat) and the Elephant Reintegration Trust (ERT) are outraged that the Johannesburg Zoo has spent just over R1.5 million to acquire two new elephants on 13 June.
This amount was revealed through a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request to the Johannesburg Zoo.
Director of ERT Brett Mitchell said the City’s funds have been grossly overspent through this transaction.
Bat’s Smaragda Louw described the decision as unethical. “Given the urgent issues facing the City, surely this kind of problematic and excessive expenditure is irregular and would be far better spent on service delivery.”
Bat is calling on the public to boycott the zoo. “We will not stand back and allow Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo to continue in this manner and we will do everything within our power to get all three elephants out of the hell hole called the Johannesburg Zoo.”
Mitchell said that the new elephants are probably in a worse situation than they were before, having moved from a free-contact system that during the day allowed them to roam freely within a natural environment to being in a full protection contact system with considerably more restrictions and confinement than before.
Mitchell also stated that the size of the enclosure at the zoo is unacceptable.
“The living area for the elephants is 0.55 hectares with a dangerous moat system and no enrichment. If one was to equate this to a human, it is the same as being locked up in a single-room house for the rest of your life.”
He went on to say that ERT, Humane Society International Africa and EMS Foundation had sent the zoo a proposal shortly after Kinkel’s death last year to remove Lammie from the zoo and rehabilitate her back into a secure wild system to live her remaining years with dignity as a free elephant.
“Had the zoo really had Lammie’s well-being at heart, they would have engaged and embraced the proposal which would have placed them on the right side of history,” said Mitchell.
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