7 Humboldt Penguins die from drowning at the Calgary Zoo

[troutman]

Zoos Are Not Prisons. They Improve the Lives of Animals

http://time.com/4364671/zoos-improve-lives-of-animals/
[Ganzert, Ph.D, is president and CEO of the American Humane Association.]

Blunt and sweeping indictments of zoos and aquariums fail to account for how ethical institutions enrich and ultimately protect the lives of animals, both in human care and in the wild.

Responsible zoos and aquariums exist to facilitate and promote the conservation of animals. And the need for intensive conservation campaigns is now more urgent than ever before: Our world is currently in the midst of the “Sixth Extinction".

Modern zoos and aquariums serve as bases for observation and research, which then helps protect wild animals.

Of course, the positive contributions of zoos and aquariums in conserving wild animals cannot—and should not—outweigh the health and well-being of the animals living under the care of these institutions. That’s why American Humane Association is launching a global initiative to elevate the welfare standards of zoos and aquariums worldwide. The Humane Conservation program will be the first third-party certification devoted solely to verifying that animals living in these institutions are healthy, positively social, active, safe, and living with proper light, sound, air, and heat levels. And these standards will be set not by zoos but instead an independent collection of world-renowned experts in the fields of animal science, behavior, and ethics—a sharp departure from most existing accreditation programs, which are vulnerable to accusations of conflicts of interest and leniency.

To some detractors, the humane certification of zoos and aquariums is an oxymoron. But vast empirical and academic research discredits this black-and-white view. Animals in zoos and aquariums today can live longer, healthier, and richer lives than their forbearers ever did in the wild. Go see for yourself.

[Hack&Lube]

Some of the news/interviews with Zoo officials are saying they thing the Penguins may have panicked for some reason. They don't know why but something stressed them out.

They've been put into these temporary locations before due to renovations for periods as much as 30 days without incident.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

I'm not even some huge animal lover or anything - I respect them a lot - but I don't get all crazy like some animal lovers.

Having said that, going to San Diego was depressing. The elephant, the rhino, ALL the big cats and tons of other animals were sad. These guys need space, and tons of it.

This lion

Spoiler!

is definitely not happier than this lion
.

That picture is a very poor representation of the habitat. Taking an shot of the lion through a chain link fence, showing only a small portion of the enclosure makes it seem like they are in old school cages. They are not.
The San Diego Zoo is one of the best when it comes to the quality of the enclosures.

I am a bit of a zoo nut. I've visited a lot around the world.

There are, sadly, far worse zoos than SD. Calgary also is a really good zoo.
If you want depressing check out the Edmonton Zoo. Woeful.

Thankfully more and more zoos are trying to improve these habitats, but it takes time to roll them over.

The Calgary Zoo had a rough run for a few years, but some key positions were changed. This is an unfortunate step back. But overall I feel that the leadership at the Zoo is doing their best to ensure the quality of life for the animals is high. The decision to take out Elephants reflect this. That is a hard decision for a zoo to make, given Elephants are one of the "Showcase Animals" - but they realized they couldn't do enough to make those animals happy - so they did the right thing and moved away from having them.

This is a complex issue. I too have mixed feelings about zoos but feel overall their benefit outweigh the issues.

This is a tragedy though.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

This lion

Spoiler!

is definitely not happier than this lion

Spoiler!

Probably.

Right up until, at about the time the zoo lion is 1/10th through his healthy though marginally less happy life, he has his throat ripped out by another lion or gets gored by an elephant, and then gets disembowelled and devoured by hyenas and other lions. Or hey, if he's lucky, he'll just take a bullet from a poacher and get turned into décor.

The Wild. So majestic. So free.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by troutman

Zoos Are Not Prisons. They Improve the Lives of Animals

http://time.com/4364671/zoos-improve-lives-of-animals/
[Ganzert, Ph.D, is president and CEO of the American Humane Association.]

Blunt and sweeping indictments of zoos and aquariums fail to account for how ethical institutions enrich and ultimately protect the lives of animals, both in human care and in the wild.

Responsible zoos and aquariums exist to facilitate and promote the conservation of animals. And the need for intensive conservation campaigns is now more urgent than ever before: Our world is currently in the midst of the “Sixth Extinction".

Modern zoos and aquariums serve as bases for observation and research, which then helps protect wild animals.

Of course, the positive contributions of zoos and aquariums in conserving wild animals cannot—and should not—outweigh the health and well-being of the animals living under the care of these institutions. That’s why American Humane Association is launching a global initiative to elevate the welfare standards of zoos and aquariums worldwide. The Humane Conservation program will be the first third-party certification devoted solely to verifying that animals living in these institutions are healthy, positively social, active, safe, and living with proper light, sound, air, and heat levels. And these standards will be set not by zoos but instead an independent collection of world-renowned experts in the fields of animal science, behavior, and ethics—a sharp departure from most existing accreditation programs, which are vulnerable to accusations of conflicts of interest and leniency.

To some detractors, the humane certification of zoos and aquariums is an oxymoron. But vast empirical and academic research discredits this black-and-white view. Animals in zoos and aquariums today can live longer, healthier, and richer lives than their forbearers ever did in the wild. Go see for yourself.

Unless you're a Danish Zoo...there is some NSFW language in the video.

NSFW!

[alan21]

They died happy after meeting Johnny the other day.

[ResAlien]

What were their names? There needs to be a Harambe like level of social awareness for this. The Calgary Seven #NeverForget

[Swift]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

Some of the news/interviews with Zoo officials are saying they thing the Penguins may have panicked for some reason. They don't know why but something stressed them out.

Probably being attacked by a tiger.

[Since1984]

Originally Posted by ResAlien

Did that guy nail your wife or something?

I think this guy just has more hair than him

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by alan21

They died happy after meeting Johnny the other day.

"Finally! A human who is the same height as us..."