Have fur, must travel
>> Parc Safari’s bankruptcy spells trouble for exotic animals

by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Parc Safari, the 360-hectare family-themed animal park/zoo about 50 kilometres south of Montreal, declared bankruptcy last week, putting the livelihood of its 300 employees at risk and the fate of its 1,000 animals in limbo. Famed for its up close and personal approach, wherein families could drive through faux-African savannas and Eurasian plains and touch species totally alien to Canadian climes, the Parc has run up debts in the millions, blamed by its owners on wretched summer weather and declining popularity. Canadians, it seems, are digging laughing and pointing at captive animals, held in cages or chained to trees in the midday sun, less and less.

It comes as no surprise that the lives of animals held in cages is miserable, best efforts to prove otherwise notwithstanding. The trade in exotic species is unregulated, meaning owners can do pretty much as they wish with their property, and that means the owners can do whatever they want with animals that have outlived their usefulness. Which, animal rights activists point out, they’ve been doing for years anyway.

“Parc Safari tends to highlight baby animals, and they market new babies to clients,” says Rebecca Sorensen, a campaigner and spokesperson for Global Action Network, a Montreal-based animal rights advocacy group. “They have a huge surplus of adult animals. We have documented evidence that zoos are trafficking in exotic animals to canned hunts, and we have no reason to suspect that Parc Safari is any exception.” The canned hunts Sorensen refers to are the estimated 36 hunter playgrounds in the province, where armed humans pay to shoot animals within closed-off limits which, opponents feel, conveniently eliminates any sense of sportsmanship, fairness or challenge. She says deer, elk, Nubian ibex, antelope, bison and yak are particular favourites for canned hunters.
A fate arguably worse than death, Sorensen adds, would be selling the beasts to a circus. “Parc Safari has elephants and chimps, and we’re very concerned about them,” she says. “But [selling off older animals] is not anything new. We know this has been happening.” Another animal charity, the Fauna Foundation, said they would be thrilled to adopt some of the chimpanzees.

Of course, there are always research and medical labs that could give the chimps a home, although that prospect doesn’t seem likely. “No lab in Canada would take them,” says Fauna Foundation’s Gina Roitman. And the backlash would make the sale a public relations suicide move, says Zoocheck Canada, a Toronto-based animal protection charity.
“I wouldn’t say the possibility doesn’t exist,” says Rob Laidlaw, a Zoocheck Canada director, “but it’s unlikely that Parc Safari will exercise that option because they’d be flogged in the media. And the amount of money they’d receive would be negligible.”
So, what then for the majority of animals? Parc Safari owners did not return the Mirror’s calls by presstime, so the fate of the more exotic animals, from the African lion to the White-bearded gnu, remains unknown. Though animal rights activists think being stuck in a biomedical chamber of horrors is probably not much better than being hunted by boozy rednecks or chucked into a travelling circus and forced to wear a dress, there do not seem to be many options that will please everyone. But, says Sorensen, something has to be done. “The zoo should take responsibility and arrange for something. The government should also step and arrange for some sort of appropriate sanctuary.” In the meantime, she says her group will continue to monitor the situation and track where the animals end up. She promises her group will be forthcoming about whatever developments they find. “I don’t think Canadians want tamed animals running for their lives in canned pens,” she says. :