The East London Zoo has allegedly halted plans to buy wild dogs, following a serious global outcry over the poor conditions under which many of the zoo’s animals have been kept.
“The Zoo has confirmed that they won’t be getting any wild dogs yet,” said Martie Roussow, Manager of the NSPCA Wildlife Protection Unit, which was confirmed by Bonny Strachan, National Senior Inspector, NSPCA Society Liaison Unit, who was present at a recent meeting of the zoo’s newly-formed ethics committee, which meets every second Wednesday to discuss issues. Strachan said that at yesterday’s meeting, May 23, it was confirmed that “no purchase of wild dogs is in the pipeline. Right now the zoo is trying to fix the rest of the facilities, looking at upgrading the wild dog enclosure. There is a budget issue that it is currently working on.”
The zoo has come under public scrutiny after reports of animals having to be put down due to their poor conditions. According to Siani Tinley, senior manager of Marine and Zoological Services for the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM), the zoo had previously kept wild dogs, but these had to be euthanised due to old age about seven years ago.
And earlier this year, horrific conditions at the zoo made headline news in The Daily Dispatch, which reported that “the two elderly brown bears at the zoo have been severely under-fed, getting only half of the calories they are supposed to. The revelation came after Lionel de Lange, CEO of the Lawrence Anthony Earth Organisation Ukraine, visited the zoo upon hearing of the bears' condition via an online petition”.
"It would be a very sad day if [the EL Zoo] gets wild dogs again," commented former chair of the East London SPCA, Annette Rademeyer, as the “SPCA had confiscated many animals from the zoo that were in such bad condition they had to be put down”.
The zoo receives funding from the municipality, and information on the budget allocated for the upgrade of the zoo was not available at the time of publishing.
