Response to "Accredited Zoos Have High Standards, Does PETA?"
Letters to the Editor
May 23, 2007
Please allow me to address the false statements in Steve Feldman’s piece (“Accredited Zoos Have High Standards; Does PETA,” American Chronicle, May 14).
As we have said from the beginning—and as the jury agreed unanimously after deliberating for only a short time—there was no cruelty or misleading with regard to PETA’s work helping animals in impoverished North Carolina counties.
PETA never hid the fact that animals retrieved from the pounds would be euthanized. We stepped in when asked by a law-enforcement officer to stop pounds in North Carolina from killing cats and dogs in horrific ways, including gassing and shooting them. We couldn’t turn our backs on these animals and our involvement prevented them from suffering.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), on the other hand, turns a blind eye to animals’ suffering in zoos or even condones it. For example, the AZA doesn’t oppose striking elephants with bullhooks (a rod with a sharp metal hook on the end)—in fact, its standards specifically allow this weapon. AZA members are meeting standards if they keep elephants in outdoor enclosures measuring 40’x 45’ –equivalent to a three-car garage. The AZA considers a 20’x20’ indoor pen sufficient for an elephant to be kept overnight or during bad weather. The organization deems it acceptable for elephants to be chained for up to 12 hours per day. It has not even condemned the lethal ivory trade or the capture and removal of wild elephants from their homes.
If this is considered a “high standard of care,” officials with the AZA and any zoo associated with it should hang their heads in shame.
Lindsay Pollard-Post
Staff Writer
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
As we have said from the beginning—and as the jury agreed unanimously after deliberating for only a short time—there was no cruelty or misleading with regard to PETA’s work helping animals in impoverished North Carolina counties.
PETA never hid the fact that animals retrieved from the pounds would be euthanized. We stepped in when asked by a law-enforcement officer to stop pounds in North Carolina from killing cats and dogs in horrific ways, including gassing and shooting them. We couldn’t turn our backs on these animals and our involvement prevented them from suffering.
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), on the other hand, turns a blind eye to animals’ suffering in zoos or even condones it. For example, the AZA doesn’t oppose striking elephants with bullhooks (a rod with a sharp metal hook on the end)—in fact, its standards specifically allow this weapon. AZA members are meeting standards if they keep elephants in outdoor enclosures measuring 40’x 45’ –equivalent to a three-car garage. The AZA considers a 20’x20’ indoor pen sufficient for an elephant to be kept overnight or during bad weather. The organization deems it acceptable for elephants to be chained for up to 12 hours per day. It has not even condemned the lethal ivory trade or the capture and removal of wild elephants from their homes.
If this is considered a “high standard of care,” officials with the AZA and any zoo associated with it should hang their heads in shame.
Lindsay Pollard-Post
Staff Writer
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
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