animal treatment at AK

[Shaman]

I occasionally have fish die in my aquarium...does that mean I am abusive/mistreating of the aquarium.

YES!!!

I'm going to protest now....













:lol: :wave:

 

[CatLady]

Almost every animal born/hatched etc at an accedited zoo was very well planned for, in fact the breeding had to be approved, many times by a national committe. So each of these babies is precious and cared for.

I'm not arguing that AK and AKL animals are well cared for. I know keepers there, and I know they take good care of their animals, and the AZA is very demanding in its accrediation. However, the national committee stuff is certainly untrue in my experience with AZA facilities. Do you mean animals on the Species Survival Plan? That would make more sense than all animals bred in those facilities.

The only issue I have with Disney's behavior with the animals in its care (not counting the bird thing) is that they allowed their manatees to breed. The state was not happy about that. Manatees are brought into captivity for rehabilitation, not for species survival, and they aren't supposed to be bred.

This is a little off topic, but I always felt like the lions were drugged.

How can you go on the ride and think that they are not drugged, you are so close to them if they wanted they could attack you easily.

Plus, they are always laying around and always sleeping. I have been on it 4x and they are always the same way. I been in the morning & in the afternoon and they are always sleeping!

You should come to my house day or night and see what my house cats are doing! Lions sleep about 20 hours a day (http://www.zoo.org/educate/fact_sheets/savana/af_lion.htm). Although I hvaen't seen the lion enclosure from above, I believe it has a moat around it wide enough for lions not to be able to jump across. That's how most "no fence" enclosures work.

On another note, animals die at zoological parks all the time. They die of trauma (a giraffe was hit by lightning in front of guests last year), when young animals are born not strong enough to survive (AKL savannah this year), and of age-related illnesses (I don't know of a specfic example of this; AK brought in a bunch of relatively prime-of-life and young animals to open the park -- a park like SeaWorld which has been open for 30 years has a lot of older/geriatric animals and will see higher mortality rates). Animals dying is terribly sad, but not necessarily a sign of neglect or abuse.

 

[bob0012]

All animal parks have this kind of stuff out there about them

 

[JimboJones123]

anybody hear the story of the rhino and the rake?

 

[joel_maxwell]

anybody hear the story of the rhino and the rake?

not to sure i want to :lol:

 

[JimboJones123]

not to sure i want to :lol:

sorry to say -- it's not a joke

 

[joel_maxwell]

sorry to say -- it's not a joke

:lookaroun

for the rhino's sake, if swallowed, I hope he swallowed it handle first....... ok, suspense is killing me, im sure it is sad, please PM me the details incase others dont want to hear.

 

[JimboJones123]

:lookaroun

for the rhino's sake, if swallowed, I hope he swallowed it handle first....... ok, suspense is killing me, im sure it is sad, please PM me the details incase others dont want to hear.

it wasn't by a disney cast -- it got sick on something and they found it was a rake inside. it was blamed on disney people and a major fiasco started and lasted for several months before the "retreived" the rake -- and found it wasn't a "Disney" rake.. but from the people that transfered the animal to AK and held it for several months -- i'll try to find the article..

 

[CTXRover]

You want to know why that site directs an entire page to Disney's Animal Kingdom and then another page dedicated to every other zoo in the state of Florida and the country? Easy...Disney is the big, splashy name that gets the attention.

I'm all for animals being treated appropriately, but you'll never get me to join a program like ARFF when they downright lie to you to try and get you to support their position.


A) While true a few animals died before the opening of DAK, these groups spearheaded a campaign for Disney to be investigated. As such, the government and zoological associations came in and looked around. Not only did this investigation clear Disney of mistreating animals, they left saying Disney's facilities were among, if not the, best in the world. Unfortunately, its not what these groups wanted to hear.

B)Absolutely NO animals were EVER taken from the wild as they claim. That claim is 100% false. From time to time they may take in a hurt animal until it can be rehabilitated and sent back into the wild...if they are confidant it can survive in the wild depending on the extent of its initial injuries.

C) My guess is these people have never even been inside DAK. On all walking trails there are signs about the animals, their natural habitats, their mating and eating habits, etc. There are greeters every few feet that are very knowledgable about their animal areas. And Conservation Station is an entire attraction built around providing educational opportunities for helping the natural environment, including ways on how to create backyard habitats for birds and other animals.

D) Disney's Wildlife conservation Fund has donated millions of dollars to conservation and research efforts across the world. The Fund was created when DAK was opened and a lot of the donations come from visitors to the park.

DAK is one of the top dogs when it comes to providing care and habitats for captive animals. These groups should be targeting the zoos where animals are kept in cement-floored cages. But that wouldn't be as flashy now, would it?

(Note: This is a current campaign for ARFF as they direct you to write to Bob Iger, CEO)

 

[ClemsonTigger]

The whole idea of fish being in an enclosed area, surrounded by glass, so that humans can gawk at them is complete cruelty in and of itself. The fact that you let those fish die in that water dungeon, and did not take them to a vet shows that you don't care about them.

So, what kind of aquarium do you have ?

And I didn't even get into the guppies and goldfish from my fraternity days... :lookaroun

I think we should fund a new group to protest how Africa and Asia treat their animals. I hear a whole bunch of animals die in the wild each day! Not only that but some of them are even carnivours. When will the cruelty end

Oh yea, then there's the rabbit, squirrels, opossum and deer carcasses on the side of the road on my way into work today. We need to build bigger walls on the sides of the roads or stop the cars from getting in their natural trails....oh, the humanity! :zipit:

 

[JimboJones123]

some people would rather them escape the oppression so they can live in the comforts of escaping predators and having their homes destroyed by development

 

[Glasgow]

As sad as it is to say, any zoo, however well maintained, is not going to be as good as an animal's natural habitat. Sure, predators feast on prey in the wild, but that's how nature works. Survival of the fittest and all that stuff (I'm not meaning to be uncompassionate, just saying how things have been for millions of years before man came along)

Problem is, lots of animals' natural habitats are being destroyed, which is a whole other issue. I can only hope Disney DOES try their best to provide the most suitable environment for all of their "guests"

 

[Astronaut Jones]

I may be partial and slightly uninformed but the accusations in that article seem spread really thin. It seems as if they thought through every possible accusation they could make and filled in blanks with emotional bias to make the claims that they did. There is almost no objectivity in that article. Disney seems to take on par or better care of its animals than any zoos I've seen; I support them.

 

[HunnyPot]

Loss of habitat is the problem. Very few species are willing to breed in captivity. Zoos are not the answer (but they would like us to believe that they are saving the universe).

Back to the original;


None have been given so far.

I was speaking of the Red Wolf and California Condor specifically, but you said that was wrong, so I guess I was. I teach elementary school, and we did a study on these animals during a Science unit. The information I read and was given said that while these animals were not out of the woods, captive breeding had done a wonderful job of bringing them back to life. Especially the Red Wolf. I must have read an article that was also one sided about that!

My main point I guess, and I didn't get it across propery, was that the article itself seemed to look at only the bad aspect of Disney's treatment of animals. In journalism as a whole, it seems like more and more often now we only get one side of the story, and from the author's point of view. For all you journalists out there, I'm not trying to say anything negative about your profession. It might just be our local paper and the magazine I read, but often times when an article deals with a subject, only one side is given. Or, if the opposite opinion is offered, it is obvious about which way the author feels. We have had problems with this here in our community about the President's dealings with Katrina. (I live in southern AL.) When I read this article, it seemed like the same type of journalism to me. I didn't mean to upset anyone or step on toes with my earlier comment. I apologize if I did.

 

[Thrawn]

Whenever I am in AK, I make sure I kick at least one gorilla.







:lookaroun

 

[DisneyFreak529]

If you think the lions or any of the other animals are drugged, why don't you spend the $65 and take the Backstage Safari of the Animal Kingdom and learn about how they treat and care for the animals. You might just learn something or get a new appreciation for an animal you never had before.

WOW, think you could of been a little nicer about it. I mean every one else was nice when correcting me. Then you come here telling me I should go out and learn something.

Well I'm sorry that I'm a dog person and didn't know that cats/lion slept 22 hours a day. I'm happy to have learned something from my post, but you didn't have to be mean about it, telling me I should go and learn something!!

 

[joel_maxwell]

Whenever I am in AK, I make sure I kick at least one gorilla.







:lookaroun

i would expect nothing less.........



:lookaroun (part 2)

 

[DisneyFreak529]

Whenever I am in AK, I make sure I kick at least one gorilla.

No joke!! On my frist trip to AK one of the Gorilla's poopied and started playing with it, No joke. I know it sounds gross, but I it was funny if you were there.

 

[tracyandalex]

And I didn't even get into the guppies and goldfish from my fraternity days... :lookaroun

I think we should fund a new group to protest how Africa and Asia treat their animals. I hear a whole bunch of animals die in the wild each day! Not only that but some of them are even carnivours. When will the cruelty end

Oh yea, then there's the rabbit, squirrels, opossum and deer carcasses on the side of the road on my way into work today. We need to build bigger walls on the sides of the roads or stop the cars from getting in their natural trails....oh, the humanity! :zipit:

lol :lol:
(go seminoles!!!!!!)

 

[JimboJones123]

Whenever I am in AK, I make sure I kick at least one gorilla.







:lookaroun

ah-- the memories...