Legalised cruelty of animals in our zoos

Malaysian Posts ; From Shenaaz Khan, via e-mail

The extreme level of cruelty perpetrated in Malaysian zoos is not breaking news. These atrocities have rampantly and routinely been practised by zoos across this country with little or no action taken against them. The Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 and its predecessor The Protection of Wildlife Act 1972 mandate the standards of welfare of captive and exhibit animals. Yet animals in zoos, farms and exhibits almost always bear signs of malnutrition and ill-treatment.

The contention that Malaysian zoos are for the purpose of conservation and education is a monumental hoax. Animals are snatched out of their natural environment with hideous callousness and made to live in horrendous conditions. Maggot ridden sores, cramped enclosures and chained limbs are just some of the horrors of life in a cage. The plight of these imprisoned animals goes beyond the squalor of their surroundings.

Many are starved, beaten into submission and forced to perform degrading tricks for human amusement. The extensive physical trauma and psychological terror that animals experience by these barbaric forms of entertainment are irreparable. If they aren’t relegated to a lifetime of cruel confinement, they’re disposed of to the illegal wildlife trade. Illegal animal trafficking, amongst the world’s most lucrative criminal businesses, is widespread in Malaysia.

Many Malaysian zoos function as fronts for illegal wildlife trade. Anson Wong, one of the world’s most famous wildlife smugglers, used his zoos in Penang to actively trade precious wildlife across the globe. And he did so with the tacit approval of the authorities. Wong was captured and incarcerated in the United States in 2000 for wildlife offences. Nonetheless, Wong’s imprisonment was no hindrance to his money-making movement.

Permits in his name were issued on Malaysian soil while he served a 71-month jail term on foreign land. Such is the state of wildlife protection in this country that an international convicted criminal may still invariably and comfortably generate an illicit income in Malaysia. Sadly, Wong is just one of the many traffickers “legally” lurking within our borders, our airports and our jungles.

The brutal truth of abuses taking place within the zoos is that every one of these establishments operates with legal permits yet procures most of their animals through illegal means. Owing to inadequate enforcement, corrupt complicity and complacency, notorious zoos such as Saleng Zoo and Taiping Zoo continue to operate despite countless permit violations. Saleng Zoo has four court cases pending against them yet the brutes who run the zoo continue to display smug arrogance in the face of condemnation.

And for close to a decade, Taiping Zoo has repeatedly been implicated in the illegal wildlife trade. Yet, its illegal acquisition of protected wildlife has escaped prosecution at every turn. And while the new and improved Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 is a decent piece of legislation, it doesn’t augur well to have culprits like Taiping Zoo grandly operating without a single judicial smudge on its record. If the Malaysian government is indeed serious in overturning its dreadful animal rights record, then it should end all support and association with such horrific and illegal practices and take immediate steps to shut down all errant zoos. The relics of our humanity depend on it!

The writer is the president of the Malaysian Animal Welfare Society