I Knew They'd End Up Shooting It!

[Tilly2]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-41944467


Inevitable but very sad.

[Prudie]

Zoos have progressed in leaps and bounds in the last 30 years, enclosures are much bigger and more naturalised and many are involved in breeding programmes for highly endangered species. It is a Solomon's choice thing - keep them in captivity or let them disappear.

[Tilly2]

I accept that Prudie but I still would not visit a zoo.

[mikey4444]

As a boy in the 50's and 60's, I visited Regents Park zoo at least 10 times a year....an Uncle of my Mums worked in the lion and tiger enclosure.

But I am not sure I could get the same enjoyment now, especially with the big animals, like elephants and giraffes being confined to small cages.

I understand the role that zoos perform these days, but the bigger places, like Longleat seem much more humane to me these days.

[Prudie]

I'm not sticking up for them particularly but you won't find elephants and giraffes held in small cages in the UK, nor in most of the civilised West.

[wolf63]

I don't know if this is new information or what but this is the statement from the wildlife park

https://www.facebook.com/BorthZoo/posts/2172360402789752
For those without Facebook or are Facebook-phobic.

We are truly devastated by the hunting and killing of Lillith last night. For the past three weeks we have been tracking and attempting to catch her in a safe way. We have employed 24-hour, on-site help from expert trackers and animal recovery specialists who have been aiding us in our efforts, but she proved to be quite elusive. We have spared no expense or effort in our search.

The only options available to us were live catching with nets or luring her into one of the many bait traps that we built and placed in areas she was frequenting. The authorities lent us one bait trap (that was too small) and a few camera traps to aid us in our search. All other help we either employed ourselves or was offered freely by friends and members of the public.

Initially Lillith escaped to the hill behind the zoo and then moved across the bog to a remote, dense woodland. We were advised by the government appointed vet that darting was not possible due to the terrain. We had been pressured from the start to allow marksmen to hunt her with live ammo, but we categorically refused that option. All the time she remained in the woods we could argue that she was a danger to no-one and we fought for more time to capture her alive.

Two days ago, in the early evening we had a call saying that Lillith had been spotted less than a mile away at a local caravan park. The park was closed and empty for the winter period and Lillith was discovered asleep under one of the caravans. When the call came in we were in the middle of a council inspection and the council officials insisted on accompanying us to the location where she was seen. When we got there the caravan was boarded in on three sides with decking and all we had to do was sling a net across the back and we would have had her trapped. Unfortunately, one of the officials insisted that he needed to photograph her and make a positive ID before we were allowed close. He slipped and fell going up the bank which startled her causing her to run past him and off across the fields.

After a fruitless search we were informed that due to her being in a heavily populated area they would be issuing a shoot to kill order and we had run out of time. We made one final effort yesterday to lay traps for her and we were out all day looking for her with catch nets, but the shocking call came in late last night that they had killed her. In just 24 hours they had called in marksmen who had used state-of-the-art night scopes and thermal imaging cameras to hunt her down and shoot her dead. To say we were devastated was an understatement.

The zoo will remain closed until further notice. When we took over this business just six months ago we knew it was in a terrible state. It had been neglected and run down for quite a while with many of the enclosures rotting and not fit for purpose. I think the previous owners had lost heart with the place and had stopped investing in improvements which is why they wanted to sell it. It’s quite an unusual place as it takes in many animals that would not be accepted elsewhere. Many of the animals are rescued from the animal trade or are exotic pets that the owner cannot look after any more.

It is our intention to reopen after inspection and carry on the work here to give these animals the decent home that they so richly deserve with new enclosures and better amenities. We would like to thank the many people of Borth who have supported our efforts and all the words of encouragement from people far and wide.

[Tilly2]

Thank you, Wolf.

[Prudie]

They are clearly devastated, seems like H&S over the top as usual.

[237SJ]

So some bumbing official and red tape lead to her demise. Very sad and it didn't need to happen.

[237SJ]

*bumbling*

[Metaphysicalus]

It seems from the article by the zoo that the Government were intent on killing Lillith from the start. I appears that the only consideration they gave toward catching it alive was negligible.