ANIMAL WELFARE

Kangaroo a springboard for debate
Tyson is AWOL - and Ontario candidates are promising animal-welfare laws
TIMOTHY APPLEBY

September 8, 2007

LONDON, ONT. -- Where's Tyson, the roadside kangaroo? Australian Environment
Minister Malcolm Turnbull was asking that question earlier this year, his
attention caught by a furor over the small Ontario zoo where Tyson lives -
or perhaps lived.

"We think he's being hidden," said Melissa Tkachyk, programs officer for the
Toronto office of the World Society for the Protection of Animals, which
spearheaded a long and ultimately successful campaign for Ontario's 40-plus
privately run menageries to be scrutinized and policed.

Other speculation suggests Tyson - a "big red" kangaroo thought to be about
six years old - has been relocated. Or possibly eaten.

Certainly, there was no sign of him earlier this week at the Lickety-Split
Ranch and Zoo, a short drive south of Highway 401 in London, where a llama,
a peacock and a couple of zebras could still be glimpsed. The zoo stayed
closed this summer, after a blizzard of negative publicity.

But whatever Tyson's fate, the tale of his lonely, confined life has left a
mark. And nowhere more so than in Australia, where he is now back in the
headlines.

"Canada's abysmal exotic animal laws have been changed for the first time in
almost a century due to an Australian kangaroo," the Daily Telegraph
trumpeted this week in response to a campaign pledge by Ontario's provincial
Liberal government.

That may be a stretch.

Nonetheless, in what looks to be a sure vote-getter in the Oct. 10 election,
the McGuinty Liberals have outlined a cruelty-to-animals legislative package
that Ms. Tkachyk expects to transform Ontario's animal-welfare regulations
from the weakest in Canada to the most stringent.

"That wasn't in the press release but that's what they've told us," she
said. "Basically, what this will do is strengthen the Ontario SPCA Act so
there will be penalties, whether it involves pets or zoo animals."

In the warm-up to the election campaign, Opposition Leader John Tory has
promised stronger animal-protection laws for pets. The Liberal initiative,
however, goes further because it also encompasses zoo animals and interim
measures until legislation is tabled:

A rise in the OSPCA's annual stipend, to $500,000 from $119,000, to expedite
training and law enforcement;

A one-time, $100,000 grant to help the OSPCA, the Ontario Ministry of
Natural Resources and the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums develop
a zoo-inspection program;

An $80,000 grant to the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association program that
provides temporary shelter for pets of women fleeing domestic violence.

Dotted across Southern Ontario's tourist belt, private zoos have long been a
target of animal-rights proponents.

If Tyson were a bear, a deer, a wolf or any other indigenous animal in
captivity, he would fall under the purview of the MNR and enjoy a measure of
protection. The treatment of kangaroos, monkeys, lions, tigers and all other
"exotic" beasts, however, almost entirely escapes scrutiny.

OSPCA officers sometimes accompany MNR staff enforcing the Fish and Wildlife
Conservation Act, but otherwise have long had difficulty visiting zoos
without permission from owners, which has often been denied.

And even where OSPCA inspectors do have powers, there is scant means of
enforcing them.

Abusers of animals can be prosecuted under the federal Criminal Code, whose
animal-cruelty provisions are also being toughened. But in contrast to
almost everywhere else in the country, Ontario imposes no penalties on
people who ignore provincial directives.

Chief OSPCA inspector Hugh Coghill called the Liberal's announcement a boon
to "countless animals across Ontario in need of protection."

Tyson's caregivers offered no insight.

Lickety-Split's phone has been disconnected and its website taken down.
Owner Shirley McElroy did not show up in court in July to answer questions
about her zoo licence.

Reached by telephone, Ms. McElroy hung up, and she was not at the sprawling
Lickety-Split property this week, where further efforts to elicit comment
were rebuffed.

Tyson's predicament made for impassioned debate in Australia.

"He was kept all alone, in just this barren cage with a metal shed," said
Ms. Tkachyk, who has documented numerous abuses at zoos and says Ontario is
by far the worst place in Canada for a wild animal to be a roadside
attraction.

"We have the weakest regulations and we have more roadside zoos than
anywhere else. The animals are generally kept in small, barren cages with
very little more than food, water and a place to sleep. They have no
stimulation and their lives are very impoverished."