General public can help encouraging better zoos

The London-based World Society for the Protection of Animals, WSPA, a non-profit organization promoting animal welfare around the world, recently investigated the condition of animals in several zoos in Indonesia, along with its local counterpart Animal Conservation for Life, KSBK.

WSPA's expert Rob Laidlaw shared the organization's findings with The Jakarta Post and offered solutions through an e-mail interview from his Canada office.

Question: What are the investigation's crucial findings?

Answer: The WSPA/KSBK investigation revealed that a significant portion of Indonesia's zoos are grossly overcrowded. There are simply far too many individual animals for their available space and resources. If these zoos were to reduce the size of their live collections, it would result in an increased level of resources being allocated to a smaller number of animals.

This would most certainly have a positive impact on the overall standard of animal husbandry. In addition, as the collections are downsized and some animals vacated, their current residents could be joined with other cages, thereby increasing the amount of space available for the animals that remain.

Q: Compared to other zoos in Asia and the rest of the world, how poor are the conditions of Indonesia's zoos?

A: While there are comparable poor physical facilities in many other zoos throughout the world, Indonesia's zoos seem to be particularly crowded and use greater numbers of animals in shows. Collectively, they rank among the worst in the world.

Q: Indonesia is currently undergoing a severe social, political and economic crisis. Maybe the zoos are experiencing financial hardship and therefore cannot properly manage its animals?

A: I think national, regional and international crises do have an effect on the operations of zoos. Historically, that effect has been limited to individual zoos, such as those in a war zone or directly in the path of a hurricane. In any event, if a zoo is situated in an area of conflict or is prone to natural disasters, it is the responsibility of the zoo management to anticipate a possible emergency situation.

Q: But even before the crisis, Indonesian zoos were facing funding problems in improving the welfare of their animals?

A: While funding is certainly a problem in many Indonesian zoos, I don't believe it is a primary cause of the grossly substandard conditions encountered by WSPA and KSBK. Certainly, building new exhibits and restructuring entire zoos can be expensive, but tremendous improvements in animal husbandry, housing and welfare can still be achieved when resources are lacking.

This is often accomplished through low-tech enclosure modifications, changes to husbandry protocols and changes to zoo management policies and procedures.

Changing feeding schedules and food presentation is another low-cost way Indonesian zoos could improve animal welfare. Instead of merely presenting food in one spot once a day, zoos could employ staggered schedules that spread feeding out over the entire day.

Husbandry protocols that improve animal welfare can be changed at no cost. For example, the chaining of elephants, particularly hobbling both forefeet together, could be ended. In most cases, almost immediately and it wouldn't cost the zoos anything. Public feeding, which encourages abnormal begging behavior and makes it difficult to control individual diet quality and food intake, could easily be stopped. It would definitively have a positive impact on animal health and welfare.

Indonesian zoos could substantially improve their exhibits through the addition of appropriate cage furnishings. Many of the exhibits encountered during the investigation were barren and failed to provide animals with shade, privacy, soft substrate areas and cage furnishings, all of which can be provided at a very low cost.

There are hundreds of low or no-cost measures that could be employed by Indonesian zoos to improve the welfare of their animals. Lack of money should not be an impediment to improving the conditions and welfare of animals in Indonesian zoos.

Q: What should the government and zoo management do to consistently improve the conditions of both the animals and zoos?

A: Improving conditions for animals in Indonesian zoos has to start with national legislation that requires zoos to be licensed and to adhere to modern, professional zoo practices, including proper animal husbandry and housing standards. It should also contain an effective enforcement mechanism and provision for seizing animals and closing down substandard zoos.

Individual zoos that wish to improve animal welfare should conduct an assessment of current conditions and problems using the assistance of outside experts. This is particularly important, as many of the zoos seem to be unaware of how grossly substandard they actually are, so an internal assessment may not be useful.

The next step would be the development and implementation of a plan to address the problems, prioritizing those areas that are causing severe animal suffering. All Indonesian zoos should also seek advice and training from their international counterparts.

Q: In addition to the authorities, what role can the public play in improving the welfare of zoo animals?

A: Since zoos are primarily structured and operetta vehicles of entertainment for the general public, zoo visitors can have considerable influence over how they operate. There are however, several factors that limit that influence. One of the most important of these factors is knowledge. Since the majority of zoo visitors possess little or no knowledge about the biology and behavior of the wild animals they are viewing, they typically don't recognize problematic conditions.

Most zoo visitors also have no specialized knowledge about exhibit design, environmental enrichment, preventive animal health programming, zoo safety and security protocols and all other aspects of modern zoo animal management that potentially impact on zoo animal health and welfare, so they often assume the zoo knows what it is doing and say nothing. This certainly seems to be the case with Indonesian zoo visitors.

I believe the public can play a significant role in making sure that zoos operate in a humane and responsible manner. All they require is a little knowledge and the motivation to voice their opinion.

-- Rita A. Widiadana