7 Humboldt Penguins die from drowning at the Calgary Zoo

[HotHotHeat]

I just copied his profile from the website... My point is it doesn't look like any high up's have been replaced. The guy is accountable based on his position. What's brutal is the pathetic record of this zoo.

[ResAlien]

Did that guy nail your wife or something?

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I just copied his profile from the website... My point is it doesn't look like any high up's have been replaced. The guy is accountable based on his position. What's brutal is the pathetic record of this zoo.

Yeah well why don't you give it a minute so they can sort out what happened before making assumptions.

I can't imagine posting somebody's photo and baselessly (and permanently!) linking him to the death of penguins on a public site like this.

Edit: I see you took the photo down. Thanks. At least you left his name, though. Good work.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

He's pretty clearly guilty if you think about it.

Jamie is awfully similar to J'aime which means "I love" in French. And Dorgan just needs an apostrophe and an "es" to become d'organes.

Put it together and what do you get? "I love organs".

Codename for a man who has worked covertly at the Zoo for the last six years murdering animals so that he can harvest and possibly EAT their organs Hannibal Lecter style? You be the judge. I'm just connecting the dots but it sounds pretty cut and dry to me.

[PepsiFree]

Don't animals just die in the wild... like... ALL of the time?

[HotHotHeat]

Just a reminder that before this latest one, 203 animals have died at the zoo unexpectedly in 2016 in three separate incidents that were the result of human error.

[PepsiFree]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Just a reminder that before this latest one, 203 animals have died at the zoo unexpectedly in 2016 in three separate incidents that were the result of human error.

Let's be honest here, 200 of those were fish.

Nobody cares about fish.

EDIT: upon further research, I count 200 and 1 otter. What were the other two you're implicating negligence in?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

Just a reminder that before this latest one, 203 animals have died at the zoo unexpectedly in 2016 in three separate incidents that were the result of human error.

How does that compare to other zoos of this size?

[BigNumbers]

($*%, those animals have a way better life at the zoo then being tiger/seal/polar bear food in the wild... The complaints are from folks who don't think about what life (if any) many of these animals would have without the good intentioned, hard work from zoo staff.

Do people eff up and make mistakes that cost animal lives? Sure. Can that be improved? definitely! Are these animals still, as a group, better off - Undoubtedly.

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by PepsiFree

Don't animals just die in the wild... like... ALL of the time?

No, didn't you know that death doesn't occur in the wild? Animals only die because of humans. They never get brutally mauled to death by other members of the animal kingdom. That kind of crap only happens in zoos and Hollywood.

[puckedoff]

Yeah but its the animal's right to due in a savage mauling by a wolf or fighting over a mate. To cage these beasts and call it a better life is to say that the accountant has it better than the Gladiators.

[Jason14h]

But the Gladiators were slaves and caged? So confused now!!

[N-E-B]

Originally Posted by puckedoff

Yeah but its the animal's right to due in a savage mauling by a wolf or fighting over a mate. To cage these beasts and call it a better life is to say that the accountant has it better than the Gladiators.

Sorry but you're never going to convince me that a warm place to sleep at night with a constant source of food, clean water, and health care is better than the wild. Not a chance.

You make it sound as though these animals are tortured. They're not.

[cam_wmh]

Originally Posted by BigNumbers

($*%, those animals have a way better life at the zoo then being tiger/seal/polar bear food in the wild... The complaints are from folks who don't think about what life (if any) many of these animals would have without the good intentioned, hard work from zoo staff.

Do people eff up and make mistakes that cost animal lives? Sure. Can that be improved? definitely! Are these animals still, as a group, better off - Undoubtedly.

I missed that nature documentary where the tiger/polar bear made a quick 12,000 mile lunge to nab a penguin.

[Zarley]

Originally Posted by HotHotHeat

I just copied his profile from the website... My point is it doesn't look like any high up's have been replaced. The guy is accountable based on his position. What's brutal is the pathetic record of this zoo.

How does animal mortality rate at the Calgary Zoo compare the rate for animals in captivity at comparable facilities?

Also, how does it compare to the mortality rate in the wild for these respective species?

If you don't know the answer to these two questions, I don't think you can make the claim that their record is pathetic.

[calgarywinning]

2016! When will the death end! We've lost so many this year!

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by cam_wmh

I missed that nature documentary where the tiger/polar bear made a quick 12,000 mile lunge to nab a penguin.

Season Two of Planet Earth has lost the plot a little

[GGG]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Sorry but you're never going to convince me that a warm place to sleep at night with a constant source of food, clean water, and health care is better than the wild. Not a chance.

You make it sound as though these animals are tortured. They're not.

I'm pro zoo but arguing that animals are happier in a zoo is probably false. The big animals in particular are stressed. You can see the cougars and the wolves pacing. Elephants in small herds get depressed. Polar bears get depressed.

So some animals are not that well suited to zoo life.

I also think that when you take something captive or breed it in captivity you have more responsibility than better off than in the wild as a standard of care. If as humans we create a foreign situation for an animal it's our responsibility to ensure its safe. And that means taking all reasonable percaution not just marginally better than the wild.

The much more relevant arguement is a comparison to other zoos our size which I unfortunately don't have info on. But the Calgary zoo is an accredited organization and therefore will have responsibility to have procedures audited, training programs in place, and proper independent reviews of their procedures.

The most recent review led to the decision. To remove the elephants as the space wasn't appropriate despite the elephants being a main attraction at the zoo. I think you need real statistics or evidence from the zoo accreditation bodies if you wish to criticize the Calgary zoo but let's not set the standard at didn't get hit by a train or eaten by a grizzly so the zoo had a good day.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by N-E-B

Sorry but you're never going to convince me that a warm place to sleep at night with a constant source of food, clean water, and health care is better than the wild. Not a chance.

You make it sound as though these animals are tortured. They're not.

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

Spoiler!

I have mixed feelings about zoos. Yes, they do lots of conservation work and research which is great. But they are also for-profit organizations that make money off of keeping wild animals, big and small, locked up in cages for our amusement.

[puckedoff]

Originally Posted by Jason14h

But the Gladiators were slaves and caged? So confused now!!

I was referring to the American Ninja variety