Sun, May 4, 2008
Toronto Zoo brass say ... Rudolph must die!
Wait until Santa finds out. Toronto Zoo starts killing male baby
reindeer to manage the herd. Staff are heartbroken -- and furious
By MIKE STROBEL
A reindeer is seen resting in a field with its fawn at the Toronto Zoo.
For the first time in the zoo's history, newborn calves were "euthanized
due to being male" for herd management reasons, officials said. (Michael
Peake, Sun Media)
Dear Santa: I hope you are sitting down.
The Toronto Zoo is killing baby boy reindeer.
Now Dasher! Now Dancer! Now Prancer...
The first was dispatched shortly after his birth April 8.
His mom, Hayzel, bellowed mournfully for two days. You could hear her
from Meadowvale Rd.
The second met the same fate at the point of a hypodermic on April 22.
His mom, CUPE, is named for the zoo staff's union.
Both little gaffers were chocolate brown and gangly cute. They had
barely begun to nurse.
Both were perfectly healthy.
"Euthanized due to being male," says the keepers' report, terse and angry.
The keepers were so upset they left as the vets moved into the reindeer
enclosure and refused to take part.
"This is wrong," the keepers told the vets, who were none too happy either.
Three female babies have been spared.
TINSEL AND RHONDA
Tinsel and Rhonda delivered theirs the same day as CUPE.
Lucky for them, they had girls, now prancing about the paddock in the
full flush of spring.
Girl European reindeer are less hassle. Easier to sell or trade to other
zoos. I'm told they're even better at hauling a sleigh.
Two years ago, zoo execs gave approval in principle to the euthanizing
of male reindeer.
This spring is the first time it's been executed, so to speak.
Remarkable, eh? I wonder if anyone considered how this looks.
Call it herd management, or whatever.
They're snuffing Rudolph.
They never let poor Rudolph
join in any reindeer games
Never before has the zoo imposed a euthanasia order on a breed of large
animal.
The only precedent I can find, about five years back, is the mara, a
sort of jumping guinea pig from South America.
The zoo euthanized male maras to cap the population. Later, it sold off
the whole lot.
Many staff wonder: Why kill the boy reindeer? Why not just neuter them?
True, this can cause atrophied antlers. Big deal. The kiddies who visit
will still ooh and ahhh and hum Jingle Bells.
Or, staff wonder, if you're going to exterminate every male, why breed
the eight females in the first place?
Seems rather cruel. Reindeer roulette. Female, you live. Male, you die.
Says one staffer: "This bothers me more than anything I've ever
experienced here.
"Many of us feel these are not our animals and not management's animals,
but belong to the city, to the people of Toronto.
"And they should know what's happening."
Says another: "I'm sick to my stomach. This is the beginning of a road
we don't want to go down."
Funny, I thought zoos love baby animals.
There's always a fuss when a cute little snow leopard or polar bear
comes into the world, out in the wilds of northeast Scarborough.
Two days before Hayzel's son was put to death with sodium pentobarbital,
a press release announced the arrival of a baby gaur.
Congratulations to Flower and Hercules. Gaurs are huge, wild Asian cattle.
The baby? A bouncing boy. Doing fine.
Need I add, a week from now is Mother's Day at the zoo. Given what's
transpired, I hope they have the sense not to showcase the reindeer
moms. Two of them aren't celebrating.
Maria Franke, curator of mammals, tells me the decision to euthanize
male reindeer calves was made by something called the Animal Care,
Research and Acquisition Committee.
"It was a gruelling process," she assures me. "We do not take this
lightly. There is science behind it."
It's especially hard to sell reindeer because of disease fears. There's
no room.
Too expensive to release in the wild. If they keep the males they'll be
lonely. They yearn for their own harem. We can't even sell the two bucks
we have now. No one likes this. It's a necessary evil. Blah, blah, blah.
YOU'RE KILLING BABY REINDEER.
So why breed the herd, knowing half the babies are doomed?
"If we did not, we would end up with no reindeer," says Franke.
"We aren't just an entertainment facility. We're a conservation facility
and our goal is to manage genetically viable populations of animals.
"I know some keepers are upset. I know it's a sensitive subject."
No kidding. Just wait'll word gets back to the North Pole.
And it's not over.
One more calf is due any day now.
We're all hoping for a girl.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2008/05/04/5466151-sun.html