Posters of graphic animal cruelty have been put up in Beijing to put people off from watching animal performances, and eventually put an end to the practice altogether.
The exhibition, "Not Born to Perform", runs until April 15 and is part of an anticruelty campaign by Animals Asia Foundation, who have teamed up with Beijing Zoo, hosts of the poster exposition.
“By agreeing to host the exhibition on their premises, Beijing Zoo has set a precedent for all other zoological gardens in China," said senior animal welfare officer Pei Xin. "We hope more zoos will join it in making such an outstanding commitment to ending animal performance."
The exhibition hopes to show that normal animal behaviour is suppressed through performance, and highlights the lengths that China has travelled in ensuring the welfare of captive animals, and the considerable lengths there are still to go. China Zoo Watch, a voluntary group documenting abuse, found that about 50 percent of urban zoos, 91 percent of wildlife parks and 89 percent of aquariums in China still operated animal shows in 2012.
Beijing Zoo itself has had scandals involving animal abuse, notably in 2010 when the zoo was found to have covered up the death of a panda for three weeks. Then, the same year, one of its restaurants was discovered serving kangaroo and hippopotamus on its menu.
However, 2010 was also the year that the State Forestry Administration and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development called for an end to exploitative animal shows, leading to many city zoos stopping the performances.
"Some facilities had put a lot of money in their arenas when the ban came,” Zhang Jinguo, deputy curator of the Beijing Zoo, told the New York Times. “What can they do now that the shows are prohibited and their investment may never pay off? What about their contracts with troupes and trainers, which they now cannot honor? Zoos tend to agree on the principle of animal welfare, but it is never that simple in practice.”
Animals Asia is hoping that others will follow Beijing's Zoo's lead. Welfare Director Dave Neale said on the charity's website, “we still have a very long road ahead, but we have also come further than we ever could have imagined. The change is tangible and we are seeing evidence of it everywhere.”
Animal exploitation is not only prevalent in China, but all over the world, with European non-profit groups finding that all 34 aquariums for dolphins and whales in the EU fell short of animal welfare standards. Neale emphasises the fact that “zoos and nongovernmental organizations are friends,” and must work together in order to progress forward to eradicate animal performance and cruelty in captivity.
[Image via Animals Asia]
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