The Zoo de Granby plans to no longer house elephants within “the next few years”, its CEO said, as a senator was due to present a bill on Tuesday that would gradually eliminate the keeping of these animals in captivity, in particular .
Posted at 1:49 p.m.
Paul Gosselin said that the Zoo de Granby had been thinking for a few years about no longer keeping elephants. “It’s getting harder and harder to get animals out of the wild […] and to exchange with other zoological institutions, on the other side of the border, from one country to another,” he explained in an interview.
“Given all of this, and given the fact that we have to agree that the standards for elephants are getting stricter and stricter to keep them in zoological institutions, and given the fact that the bill is coming and we supported him, we decided, as an organization in Granby, to make the transition. »
Mr. Gosselin said that the three African elephants kept in Granby — the females Thandi and Sarah and the male Tutum — will be moving, although the destinations and the timetable for these moves have not yet been decided. “We will make the transition over the next few years,” said Mr. Gosselin.
Senator Marty Klyne said he will reintroduce legislation on Tuesday, backed by primatologist Jane Goodall, that would phase out the presence of elephants in captivity, end the presence of big cats in zoos and give certain animals a legal status in the courts.
The ‘Jane Goodall Bill’ was first introduced in late 2020, but died on the order paper last year when a snap election was called. Klyne of the Senate Progressive Group says the bill would ban any future captive lions, monkeys, bears and hundreds of other animals in small roadside zoos.
Several zoos have officially supported the bill, including the Montreal Biodôme, Zoo de Granby and the zoos of Toronto, Calgary and Assiniboine Park. Mr Klyne says these zoos would be exempt from the captivity ban and others could apply to become designated ‘animal welfare organisations’, which meet animal care standards and protect whistleblowers in case of abuse.
The senator adds that several zoos and animal rights organizations helped him draft the bill. “Their expertise and passion helped strengthen the bill to ban the further captivity of lions, tigers, bears and hundreds of other species,” Klyne said in a written statement.
“Important day for animals”
Primatologist Jane Goodall, who has studied family and social interactions in chimpanzees for decades, called it an “important day for animals”.
“Many of them are in desperate need of our help, and the Jane-Goodall Act establishes protection and support for animals in human care,” said Ms.me Goodall in a written statement.
The Toronto Zoo is proud to support the bill. “This represents a crucial step forward in the protection of wild animals,” wrote CEO Dolf DeJong.
Several other prominent animal rights organizations have also shown support for the bill.
“Animal Justice is especially pleased that the bill provides animals with limited legal status in court — a groundbreaking step to ensure our legal system puts their welfare first,” said the executive director of the organization, Camille Labchuk.
If passed in parliament, the bill would require organizations that own tigers or cheetahs, for example, to apply for permits to breed them or to acquire new ones. Requests would be considered on a case-by-case basis.
The bill would also ban imports of elephant ivory and rhino horn.
On this file, Senator Klyne has taken over from Murray Sinclair, who retired from the Senate last year. During the second reading of the original bill, at the end of 2020, Mr. Sinclair declared that there were 22 elephants in captivity in Canada: 16 Asian elephants at the “African Lion Safari” near Hamilton, in Ontario, a lone Asian elephant named Lucy at the Edmonton Valley Zoo in Alberta, two African elephants at Parc Safari in Hemmingford, Quebec, and three elephants at the Granby Zoo.