https://theworldnews.net/sg-news/elephants-no-longer-made-to-perform-at-singapore-zoo

Elephants no longer made to perform at Singapore Zoo

 

SINGAPORE – Elephants at Singapore Zoo will no longer be commanded to perform during shows, as part of a shift in its model of care for the park’s five female specimens.

Instead of performing stunts like balancing on logs, during the twice-daily presentations that play out to crowds of hundreds, the Asian elephants will be encouraged to display “natural behaviour”, the zoo said on Friday (Sept 21).

Enrichment toys – which require the mammals to figure out how to obtain treats such as bananas and popcorn hidden within – will be scattered throughout the exhibit for the elephants to interact with, providing the show’s main entertainment.

Keepers will now be stationed outside the exhibit, providing commentary and using positive reinforcement methods to get them to do things like lie in water.

The show’s new format, which will officially be launched on Elephant Appreciation Day on Saturday, is among the steps that Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) has taken in recent years to move towards a protected contact management system for its 11 elephants. Besides the five at the zoo, another six elephants are housed at the Night Safari.

The system entails maintaining a physical barrier between the keepers and elephants at all times, which provides more safety for keepers and better welfare for the animals.

Training and interaction are conducted through the barrier, often using treats and target sticks in favour of direct physical touch to cue desired behaviour.

In the new show, “the elephants will be allowed to be elephants”, Dr Cheng Wen-Haur, deputy chief executive of WRS told The Straits Times in a recent interview.

Keepers are trained “in the traditional method where they go in there and command elephants to do certain things. So now we are in the process of training our staff to use positive reinforcement, meaning the elephants will want to do something because they are rewarded”, he said.

Since embarking on the move towards protected contact for all of its elephants in 2015, WRS has stopped elephant rides and painting sessions – in which elephants would put use their trunks to paint – among other efforts.

The animals have since been observed to exhibit a wider range of natural behaviours, such as foraging, said Dr Cheng, who is also WRS’s chief life sciences officer.

The transition is expected to be complete in three to five years, when the elephant exhibits and back-of-house facilities in both the zoo and Night Safari are redesigned.

Safety is another big reason why WRS decided to adopt protected contact management for its elephants, which has become the norm in countries like the United States over the last two decades.

Chawang, a male elephant now housed in the Night Safari, gored a keeper and badly injured him in 2001, though there have been no incidents since.

Three of the Night Safari’s six elephants are already under full protected contact management.

But putting all elephants under it aims to eliminate the risk factor, said Dr Cheng. Currently, only senior keepers are allowed to have free contact with the zoo’s elephants.

“Many of them are due for retirement, which means we’re due to bring in a whole lot of new keepers. When you have that changeover, there is always that possibility of heightened risk,” he said.

Junior elephant keeper Nursyafiqah Mohamed Yusof, who is one of the core presenters of the show, said that when she joined the zoo a year ago, she was nervous at the thought of working up close with the creatures, which weigh about 3,000kg on average.

“They are quite dangerous… (but) there’s always a barrier, it’s much safer for us,” said Ms Nursyafiqah, 22, who is the zoo’s first female elephant keeper.

The new show format allows for better insight into the elephants’ individual personalities as well as better education for visitors, she said.

Ms Shameni Marimuthu, who caught a preview of the new show on Sept 13, said she is glad the zoo does not force the animals to perform tricks.

“It’s not so stressful for the elephants,” said the 26-year-old healthcare assistant.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction

 

 

WAV Comment – we are always left amazed by the brilliant rescues and work of the crew at AAU.  Here are a few of their latest adventures.  Please support with a donation if you can – Thanks; Mark and Venus.

 

When we started Animal Aid Unlimited in 2002 we realized the urgency of helping animals on the streets because we could see them, we could see their suffering and pain. Only gradually, thanks to the sudden explosion of Youtube and social media, did we realize that by sharing the stories of the animals we were saving, the animals who had done so much to inspire us, could inspire people far far away in the same way. Every day we get letters from people who are thrilled to share that they rescued a street dog, or who found a foster home for a cat in a shelter, or who rescued an injured raccoon or a crow and even bees and other insects. We’re getting letters from people lobbying to save sheep from live transport, hens from battery cages, beagles from laboratories. And so many of the people acting in these tremendous ways are linked to street rescue in India because they found energy from the animals in our videos and the incredible recoveries of those who seemed beyond hope. The animals are binding us together like an army. This is certainly the opposite of war, but it takes courage to help animals, and we’re bound together by love.

 

Nice and dirty!

The high season for travelling to India has arrived, and we’re so delighted to welcome a bright wave of visitors and volunteers through our gates. Often, people have very little time but are able to come for an hour or two, and they so readily say they’ll be back, now that they’ve seen the magic here. From Barbara the sheep, Tilly the goat; from Buffy the water buffalo and Deepak the dog, and 500 of their “best friends” here, we invite you to come. They’re sending a message: “Come soon, we want to feel your arms around us and make your clothes nice and dirty!”

Erika, Claire and Jim,

and the whole Animal Aid Unlimited team

 

 

Ray was stricken with mange but you can’t keep a wiggle-waggler down for long! 

We found an adorable little puppy who was desperately suffering from mange–a deadly parasite that causes continual torment from itching and infection. With medical treatment, this sad little one amazed us with the joy that literally leapt out of him. Meet our Ray of sunshine today.

Please donate, because sadness should have no place in the lives of little ones like Ray.

 

Pintu was the victim of a cruel owner; watch how he blooms with love…

We got a call to rescue a donkey found on the side of the road with plastic and ropes tied on his legs so tightly and for so long that they had cut deep into his legs and had made it nearly impossible for him to walk. Donkeys in India are made to carry bricks and heavy loads of sand and are often overworked, cruelly treated, and abandoned when they become injured. This sweet boy would have lost his ability to walk entirely if a kind person hadn’t seen him and called our helpline just in time. 

Please donate to rescue victims of abuse today.

 

Chestnut had lost consciousness from a head injury and looked like he was dead. But what a life force he has!

A street dog had been found unconscious on the side of the street, unresponsive to sound and even touch. We believe he had been hit on the head and suffered an injury to his brain. We rushed him back to Animal Aid’s shelter and began his treatment, very worried that he may never regain consciousness. If left on the street, this sweet boy wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Please donate for animals in urgent need.

 

Staff Info: Mangi Lal is one of the most experienced dog nurses in India. Celebrate the Staff: Mangi Lal  When Mangi Lal Madhav started working with us, Animal Aid was just a tiny shelter at the bottom of a hill in a small village near Udaipur, with about 30 animals, mostly dogs. Fast-forward 10 years and meet the man who has dressed more serious wounds than–arguably–anyone in India. Mangi Lal is the nursing supervisor and man in charge of the trauma treatment area for adult dogs. With both urgent care, long term healing needs and infectious disease control this is one of the most demanding areas in the hospital. There are few dog problems he has not seen and solved. We’ve been together to welcome his youngest 2 (of 3) beautiful children into the world, to celebrate in his family’s village, and to watch him keep the staff morale happy through seasons of bad weather, maggots, car accidents, viruses, infections and fractures. And best of all, he’s helped give the dogs who come in for treatment the absolute best care he possibly can, and Mangi Lal’s abilities are simply astounding.

 

 

 

 

 

My best regards to all, Venus

 

 

 

 

When, for the first time, the keychains with live animals were reported years ago, many thought that they were fakenews. But it is true!

Seven years after CNN first reported it and sparked a global protest by animal welfare organizations, The Star Online spotted a street vendor who traded in a “live animal key chain” tourism market for 15 to 20 yuan ($ 3.10 to $ 4.10 sold).

In the small plastic bags were baby turtles, fish and salamanders filled with oxygen-enriched water and colored in bright fluorescent colors. There is also a single pellet in a plastic bag that feeds the animal. The animals can only move in confined spaces, but have no room to turn around. With a string attached to a plastic wrap, they can be attached to keys, bags or cell phones.

According to the description, the animals in the bags do not have to be fed for three months!!

Ecohydrology professor Sam Walton says: “There might be enough oxygen and food in the plastic wrap, but the animal waste from digestion and respiration is toxic and will kill them. They basically poison themselves with ammonia, and even painfully. The temperature shock and the physical shock, when they are shaken, causes that the animals be killed soon” he explains.
 
As “animal cruelty” accused Walton these souvenirs.

Xiamen, a coastal city in southeastern China, is one of China’s five special economic zones, with many major shopping malls selling all kinds of goods, including home appliances, fashion, gold and silver jewelry, jade items, art and antiques. But there are also souvenirs of all kinds, not just the “key chain” with live animals.

For children, there are small so-called plastic containers with living animals such as turtles. These turtles spend their lives in tiny containers. Children love them!!

Large specimens of such animals are also eaten in China. Tens of thousands of dollars pay Chinese for turtles, which are threatened worldwide, because they should increase their potency!

If a national animal welfare law were enacted, such things could not be sold. Rather, people who violate this law would be punished. There is no animal welfare in China and so there is no way to tackle the sellers, and even more the key fob producers.

https://netzfrauen.org/2018/02/20/keychains/

My comment: China discovered a few years ago the business of tourism and the consumption rush.

And so they see tourism as a lucrative source of income, and eating meat means a high standard of live for them. In China, the more exotic the animal food, the better.
China’s tourism revenues totaled $ 832 billion in 2017.
For this purpose, the tourism industry knows no moral limit in relation to animals.

It is high time that some enlightened animal rights activists ensure that the country adopts an animal welfare law.

My best regards to all, Venus

 

 

Nepal can be proud of this number: According to a study, 235 tigers were currently counted in Nepal. Thus, the number of threatened big cats has almost doubled from 121 in 2009 to today. If this positive trend continues, Nepal will be the first tiger country to reach its goal of doubling the number of its wild tigers by 2022.

The small country in the Himalayas has already taken an absolute pioneering role in tiger conservation. The fragmentation of important habitats and poaching are among the greatest threats to the imposing big cats. The year 2022 is not only a realistic, but also a symbolic target, because it will be according to the Chinese calendar again the year of the tiger!!

Continue reading “2022: the year of the tiger!” →