Zoo Misled Public over Animal Sales

Taronga Western Plains Zoo has been suspended from selling animals after it misled the public about the sale of endangered antelope to a member of the Shooters' Party lobbying for the right to hunt them.

According to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald, documents obtained under Freedom of Information show the Zoo made none of the contractual safeguards it claimed to have implemented to protect the 16 blackbuck antelope from being hunted on a proposed game reserve owned by Shooters' Party representative Bob McComb. Instead, the sale contract stipulated the zoo accepted no responsibility for the animals after they left Dubbo.

Internal correspondence shows the animals were sold to McComb for less than half their value and had been bred for the sale after the Zoo's population dropped to a historic low. While the Zoo maintains that a senior veterinarian inspected McComb's property before the sale, there is no mention of the assessment in the Zoo's correspondence and no record of a report being prepared.

The NSW Minister responsible for the Zoo, Carmel Tebbutt, has demanded a report into the Zoo's trade of animals after the Sydney Morning Herald revealed the antelope sale to McComb. Minister Tebbutt said it would include "what further animal welfare protections should be put in place - in the meantime, the zoo has suspended such transactions with private operators."

A Zoo spokeswoman said, "the Zoo is at its heart dedicated to animal welfare. There is no history of mistreatment of animals that have been transferred from its care ... (but) it was incorrectly stated that transaction records included a reference indicating the animals were to be used for breeding purposes only."

The documents also show that Tony English, who was called on to resign from the Zoo's ethics committee after the Sydney Morning Herald reported the sale, was involved in advising on the transaction.

A working document prepared by the Taronga Conservation Society shows Dr English checked the fee for the sale and described it as "in the right ballpark."

The Greens' spokeswoman, Lee Rhiannon, who made the FOI application, said "by conducting such a poor investigation of Mr McComb's background, the Zoo has effectively let the fox guard the henhouse.

"What's missing here is any evidence that the zoo inspected Mr McComb's deer park, as claimed, or investigated his background before they sold him the animals.

"The Environment Minister, Carmel Tebbutt, and zoo officials have misled the public."

Hunting exotic animals on enclosed game reserves is illegal in NSW but is the subject of Shooters' Party legislation before Parliament.

7th July 2008 - VILLAGE ABANDONS VICTORIAN PARK PLAN