No Rules For Zoos
Why is this tolerated?
The sad reality is that, in Ontario, zoos are given free reign to operate regardless of how they treat their animals or the danger they pose to their community. There is no legal requirement in Ontario for zoo operators to have any practical experience in zoo management or animal husbandry. It is astonishing but true: roadside zoos can operate not only with substandard conditions, but also with untrained and inexperienced staff, and without proper funding or appropriate safety practices.
Regulations under the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act (FWCA) requires all those keeping, buying or selling game wildlife and specially protected wildlife in the province to obtain a licence from the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). The regulation also requires licence holders to comply with the following four general conditions attached to the licence:
- Animal enclosures in which animals are on public display should be of a size which enables the animals to:
- exercise natural behaviours to facilitate public education and interpretation
- achieve a distance from the public and other specimens at which the animals are not psychologically or physically stressed
- achieve a full range of body movements and physical movements normally performed
- Veterinary services must be available for the animal collection
- The licence holder must keep a log book that contains information respecting the buying, selling, acquisition, disposition, birth and death of the specimens kept under the authority of this licence. The log book shall be kept for the five years after the expiry of the licence.
- All specially protected raptors or non-indigenous falconry birds must be marked with a clearly and uniquely numbered band of a type approved by the Minister.
That’s it. There are no requirements for appropriate food or water, environmental enrichment or public safety. Though there are a few basic provisions related to the size of the enclosure, the conditions remain vague, undefined and are clearly not being enforced.
No rules for keeping lions, tigers and monkeys
And…if you keep only exotic species of wildlife, you don’t even need a zoo permit. That’s right, Ontario residents can keep a lion, a monkey, or a kangaroo, and any number of exotic animals in a zoo or as part of a private collection and nobody can say boo. To say this is ridiculous would be an understatement! It should be obvious that a licensing regime that applies to less than a third of the animals kept in Ontario zoos and does nothing to safeguard the public from dangerous animals is not only inadequate, it’s irresponsible.
Ontario and British Columbia are the only Canadian provinces that do not regulate captive exotics. Click here to view a chart providing an overview of zoo regulations across Canada (PDF).
Zoo standards are needed
Though not yet implemented, standards for keeping native wildlife in captivity were developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources more than four years ago and have yet to be brought forward.
If these standards were implemented, they would go some way towards addressing the roadside zoo problem in Ontario. However, the drafted standards would do nothing to safeguard the welfare of exotic wildlife or public safety as the Ministry claims these responsibilities are outside of its mandate.
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