Zoo spared trial on cruelty charges over hippo
NOW: Hazina the hippo moved into a new enclosure last June that is in full compliance with SPCA requirements.

NOW: Hazina the hippo moved into a new enclosure last June that is in full compliance with SPCA requirements.
Photograph by : Peter Battistoni, Vancouver Sun, files

Nicholas Read, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, January 24, 2007

The criminal justice branch of the provincial ministry of the attorney-general has decided to stay cruelty charges against the Greater Vancouver Zoo, arguing that because a new enclosure has been built for Hazina, the zoo's hippo, it is no longer in the public interest to pursue the charges.

Two counts of cruelty to animals were laid last May after it was alleged by the B.C. Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals that for 19 months the Aldergrove zoo kept Hazina, a two-year-old hippo, alone in a dark shed with a pool so shallow she couldn't float.

The SPCA further alleged that the only stimulation provided to Hazina during her confinement in the wooden shed were a rubber tire and a ball, and that she was forced to stand for months on a concrete floor.

The charges under the B.C. Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act were believed to have been the first laid against a major Canadian zoo, and carried a maximum penalty of $2,000 and/or six months in jail.

But Stan Lowe, communications counsel for the criminal justice branch, said when the zoo completed construction of a new hippo enclosure last June, it was in full compliance with B.C. SPCA requirements and therefore should no longer be prosecuted.

"We reviewed the matter and we determined it was no longer in the public interest to continue this prosecution, given that it achieved compliance and there was a very low risk of re-offence," Lowe said.

Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the B.C. SPCA and one of the lead investigators on the case, said the society was bitterly disappointed by the Crown's decision.

She said the fact that the zoo finally complied with SPCA directives last June doesn't negate the fact that Hazina was kept in substandard conditions for 19 months prior to the new shelter's construction.

"This gives the message that as long as the person stops causing distress to an animal, they don't face any repercussions for their actions," Moriarty said. "It means that the zoo could, say, get a baby elephant now, and keep it in substandard conditions for a year or more. But as long as they have something in place in a year or two, they'd be okay.

"We fully and still believe that an offence took place when the zoo permitted Hazina to grow up in substandard conditions."

Vancouver Humane Society spokesman Peter Fricker, who alerted the SPCA to Hazina's treatment in the first place, agreed.

"Anyone who saw the television images of Hazina's abysmal circumstances and who followed the long history of her solitary confinement must wonder just how bad a zoo animal's conditions must be before they're considered cruel under the law," Fricker said. "No one should be allowed to treat an animal like that. The B.C. government must step in and provide legal and regulatory protection for captive exotic animals."

It was largely as a result of the humane society's criticism of the zoo's treatment of two of its previous hippos that the zoo was stripped of its accreditation by the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums in April 2004, six months before Hazina's arrival. As of Tuesday the CAZA website continued to exclude the zoo from its list of accredited institutions in B.C.
But Lowe said: "You need to consider the larger picture. The public interest isn't only the interest of the SPCA; it's the interest of the public at large. And we determined it was no longer in the public interest to pursue this."

Greater Vancouver Zoo director of animal care Jamie Dorgan did not reply to messages left for him by The Vancouver Sun on Tuesday.