The dark side of contact zoos: the aggressive animal business

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

“Instead of the crushed animals, dozens of new ones were bought”: the inside of contact zoos.

Today in Moscow there are more than fifty “touching” establishments where children and adults can come into contact with rare animals. But what is behind this? The reverse side of contact zoos is such that, having recognized it, adequate parents would hardly want to bring their children there.

“Get ready for scratches, bites. If you suddenly find yourself "tagged" by one of our residents, do not be upset - he just liked you a lot "- such an ad hangs at the entrance to one of the contact zoos.

Metropolitan doctors grab their heads from such an interpretation of services: townspeople who have been bitten by animals in private zoo corners regularly turn to hospitals. Their prospect is not joyful - a course of injections for rabies. After all, often the presence of vaccinations and certificates for animals is not an obligatory item for their owners …

“Every morning, we, the employees, washed the pen for animals with special equipment. This was done so that there was no smell, and visitors did not feel sick from the "aroma" of animals. I removed dead bunnies, chickens, etc. from the pens.

The owner fed the owls and the owl with those who were strangled, dropped or died himself. They were kept in the freezer. If there were none, the owners fed the predators with weak small animals. After all, they will soon grow up and become uninteresting to visitors”- from the story of a woman who worked in a petting zoo.

There are contact zoos now in almost every second large shopping center: it is not so difficult to open them, the most important thing is to coordinate this with the local station for the fight against animal diseases.

Recently, there have even been proposals on the service market for a "turnkey manual zoo": for an agreed amount they rent a room for you, equip it with aviaries and populate them with pets. The front side of these establishments looks quite nice: a renovated room with small pens, where a variety of animals sit - from rabbits to monkeys. Visitors can go to each of them, stroke, pick up, scratch behind the ear, take a picture as a souvenir …

Many establishments have shoe covers, a wardrobe, a sink where you can wash your hands, and cups of food. It seems that everyone is happy here: both residents and customers. In fact, this is not the case.

It's time to take a closer look at the details and inspect the device of the enclosures with the eyes of a specialist. As a rule, they are completely empty, “unfurnished”. Everything so that the animal has nowhere to hide from the guests. Meanwhile, the presence of a separate house is a prerequisite for the animal to live comfortably. But we never met spacious petting zoos.

By the way, pay attention: there are practically no adult animals in such menageries. Mini pigs, kids, lambs, chickens are all tiny. There is simply no place for grown-up individuals in the zoo: rent is expensive, so the enclosures are small, and every centimeter counts.

- Shelter, where animals could hide themselves in case of discomfort or hide food supplies, is a must. This applies to almost all species, from squirrels to raccoons, - explains the chief doctor of the hospital for birds, Margarita Kocherga.

There are almost no such shelters in contact zoos - after all, an animal, trying to avoid contact with people, will sit there all the time. And the forceful extraction of the animal from the shelter is fraught with injuries, even if it is a seemingly harmless rabbit. Left without the opportunity to retire, the pet of the tame zoo finds itself in a hopeless situation, which leads to endless stress and quick death.

Also, you almost never see drinking bowls with water in the pens. But the presence of constant access to water is one of the basic principles of keeping absolutely all animals.

Employees admit there are two reasons for this. First, the liquid is removed so that visitors do not accidentally spill water in the aviary and add hassle to the staff. Secondly, animals from constant stress will drink a lot, which means they will go to the toilet a lot. This will lead to the appearance of an unpleasant odor and contamination of the enclosure, which, of course, does not play into the hands of the management.

What else should alert you immediately upon entering a petting zoo is the absence of unpleasant odors. And this means that the animals live here … very badly. For them, specific smells are a natural environment in which they feel comfortable and safe. As we like to breathe the frosty air or the scent of freshly cut grass, so the animals need to live among "their" odors, which sometimes seem unbearable to the human nose.

“The animals themselves like the territory that is“uncleaned”from the point of view of man,” explains the zoologist Igor Yegorov. - Clean out the shine enclosure, removing all the "marks" of its inhabitant - and you will have an animal in extreme stress. In addition, the persistent destruction of its smells causes aggression towards a person.

Stress, unseen diet, improper maintenance, lack of control over temperature and humidity - all this leads to illness. This is reflected in the general condition: the animal is losing weight, the coat becomes disheveled, it looks stuck, it can no longer communicate with people. And then the beast is left with two types of reaction - either aggression, when the strength is still there, or apathy, when the strength is already running out.

“We often receive patients from such zoos with gastrointestinal problems, and their treatment is a very difficult task,” says the veterinarian Margarita Nikolaevna. - Even taking pills for animals is stressful, not to mention the injection.

Recently, a monkey with rectal prolapse was brought to the doctors. These are also consequences of the wrong way of life in a tame zoo. She was prescribed treatment and … was sent back: to equip an enclosure for such animals in a hospital is a difficult task. The health and life of a primate directly depends on the conscientiousness of its owners.

“You can’t say“NO”to visitors - this is the motto of the company. But often children squeezed, dropped and threw animals. Animals are in constant stress, as hundreds of hands grip them per day. The mortality rate is very high. When I asked the “old” employees where the grown kids and piglets were kept, they answered differently: someone said, for slaughter, someone - that they give the boss's acquaintances. Exotics (lemurs, raccoons, alpacas) were treated with care, but familiar ones (hares, guinea pigs, chickens) were treated as consumables."

Permissiveness for visitors is a separate chapter. The initial message “familiarity with the animal world” is transformed into complete chaos in relation to nature and its inhabitants. Instead of being taught to be respectful, children are allowed to treat pets as living toys to experiment with. One zoo even came up with such a name - "Animals are like toys", and there was no end of customers there …

“In our medical center, one petting zoo buys 20 hamsters a week every week,” says Elena, a veterinarian from the capital. - I once asked: "Are you for the feed?" In this there is nothing of the kind, many birds of prey eat rodents. And we were honestly answered: "No, our children crush them every day - we have to constantly buy new ones."

They crush, strangle, throw on the floor not only hamsters, but also chickens, ducklings, guinea pigs … - everyone who gets under the foot. Moreover, in most cases this happens on purpose. “A little girl, very tiny, made movements with her foot, trying to crush the guinea pig. Only by a miracle did her mother save her!”; “The children tugged at the rabbit's hind legs, and the rabbit threw up sawdust up to half the height of the little tormentor to the laughter of his mother and the unobtrusive“well, why are you, it hurts, he’ll scratch it now”; “In my presence, the children broke the wings of a chicken”; “Children took the guinea pig by the throat and kept it hanging for a long time”… - such messages are often found in reviews of “touching” zoos on the Internet.

And they often turn a blind eye to dangerous pranks. For example, in an establishment on Andropov Avenue, the superintendent herself warns visitors: "If the nose becomes very impudent, hit it on the nose and it will move away."Another zoo offers to sit astride a giant turtle and take pictures.

Injured animals are often not provided with veterinary care - for reasons of economy. They are given several days to fight, and if the animals die, they go to feed the predators: rodents are given to birds, chicks to meerkats. Waste-free production …

Injured animals immediately lose their attractiveness to visitors, which means that keeping them is no longer profitable. If the owner in this case reached the veterinarian, all is not lost for the pet.

Recently, the capital's veterinarians had to face a difficult choice. They brought the raccoon Tosya from the contact zoo to the clinic, complained of aggression and strange eyes. The survey showed that the raccoon was completely blind - apparently due to injury. After the diagnosis was announced to the management of the zoo, their interest in Tosa disappeared, and she was asked to be put to sleep. The hospital staff could not do this and left the raccoon in the clinic. Due to the stress, the animal developed epileptic seizures and heart problems. Aibolites provided Tosya with absolute peace and good nutrition; now he lives with one of the doctors, his eyesight will not return, but otherwise he is much better.

Living in a tactile menagerie is generally contraindicated for animals unaccustomed to contact. Raccoons, meerkats, kangaroos, lemurs can live in captivity, but in this case they get used to one person, a maximum of two. But not to hordes of strangers. Neglect of this fact leads to fatal consequences for animals. Only a small part of such cases becomes known to the general public: the dead albino kangaroos Snezhok from Novosibirsk and the famous chimpanzee Malevich from Stavropol are only those who attracted attention due to their unusual appearance and outstanding abilities.

“The hedgehog bit you because you took him without gloves and photographed him with a flash, the bite became his defensive reaction” - from the explanation by the leadership of the contact zoo of the reasons why their pet bit a Muscovite and her five-year-old son.

The employees themselves try to hedge against the consequences of injuries caused by their pets. Almost every organization has included in the visiting rules a clause stating that "the administration is not responsible for injuries, damage and damage received by visitors as a result of non-compliance or improper compliance with the rules." And they successfully refer to them in cases where traumatized children, or rather, their parents, begin to pump rights.

“You saw the rules that it is forbidden to touch animals in the absence of an employee!” - this is the most common argument that workers of manual corners make in their defense. But these accusations have no legal basis - in simple terms, they are simply shifting the blame from a sore head to a healthy one.

The presence of such a clause in the rules in no way relieves the organizers of responsibility, - explains the lawyer of the Society for the Protection of Consumer Rights Oleg Frolov. - The law clearly establishes: in case of harm to the visitor - even if he is guilty of this - the contractor who provides the service is responsible.

Employees must ensure the safety of customers. And if they see the mishandling of animals, they must stop it. And if they do not see, then so much the worse for them, because they must exercise continuous control. From the point of view of the law, a bite of a predatory animal or other injury in a tactile zoo is not the indiscretion of the citizen himself.

Yes, it is written in the set of rules that you cannot touch animals without supervision, but the zoo was called contact for a reason - visitors go there for this: stroking, touching, scratching behind the ear … And in many cases, when little guests were bitten by animals, their parents said that there were no employees nearby.

A very common scenario when the staff at the aviary is present, but the child does not calculate the strength and squeezes the animal too hard. In response, an aggressive reaction. Therefore, in case of injury, you can safely go to court. And even if the client nevertheless deliberately provoked a bite or blow, the management of the zoo will be responsible for this.

True, the servants of Themis will nevertheless reduce compensation for moral damage to the minimum. And if the client had no bad intentions, then the chance to recover the damage is very high. To do this, you need to collect as much evidence as possible: a photo of the wound and the animal, a medical examination, receipts for medical services, an entrance ticket to the zoo, and - be sure - take the phones of witnesses. Because the employees will do everything to make the guests guilty.

A recent case in Moscow: in a petting zoo in Sokolniki, a five-year-old boy and his mother were bitten by a hedgehog. Mom demanded to show certificates of vaccinations, she was shown a paper where it was written that five South African hedgehogs had been vaccinated against rabies. Only there were not five, but six animals in the pen. Employees assured that the sixth hedgehog was born in this very open-air cage, did not go anywhere from there and did not need vaccinations. But they were obliged to inoculate him, as well as to ensure that an employee was nearby who would monitor the situation.

The main task pursued by visitors to tactile zoos is to acquaint children with the animal world, to give a touch to rare pets. But is visiting these places really capable of instilling a love for the fauna?

“Getting to know animals is definitely a good idea,” says family psychologist Natalya Panfilova. “But contact zoos go to the other extreme, allowing children too much. In living nature, this never happens, and from this you need to make a start. Explain to children that you need to treat living beings with care, that in the conditions of nature you cannot catch or pet this animal. Tearing off the wings of a butterfly, the child does not understand that she will die - in his fantasy she will grow new ones for herself, and these, beautiful, will remain with him. The task of adults is to explain the tragic consequences of this. Children should understand that if they cross the border, they will do the irreparable. And if a person drank permissiveness, then in the future he will broadcast it not only to all other animals, but also to people …

To get the most adequate picture of an animal, it is not enough just to look at it or stroke its coat. You need to "sniff" it, observe the habits, listen to what sounds they make … All this is not available in contact zoos - here you will see just a revived picture, which in a short time will simply be replaced by another.

“It seems to me that the point of a petting zoo is to allow you to get as close as possible to the animal, and not torture him to death,” says Panfilova. - If you want to bring your child closer to nature, go to the forest with him, take him to the village to see his grandmother who keeps livestock … You can also visit an animal shelter and take one of the dogs for a walk - this practice is in many institutions.

Before going to "touching" zoos in Russia, remember the most important thing: not a single animal is adapted to life, where people regularly touch it. There is no need to go far for examples: imagine how your dog or cat would react if it was constantly stroked by different strangers for 12 hours. She's literally going crazy. And these are pets. What then can we say about the wild ones?..

Author: Elena Aprelska