Animal rights advocates and legislators yesterday protested an application by Leofoo Village Theme Park to import three giraffes from Mexico, citing the premature deaths of eight giraffes at the park over the past decade.
The park in Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西) claims to be the first zoo in Asia to be combined with a theme park and resort hotel, with more than 1,000 animals from about 70 species.
However, it has been fraught with controversy since its opening in 1976, the Taiwan Animal Equality Association and Life Conservationist Association told a news conference in Taipei.
Photo: CNA
After just three years of operation in 1979, African sacred ibises acquired by the zoo from the US escaped into the wild. Their population has since exploded to more than 8,000 by the end of the previous decade, becoming a problematic invasive species that the Forestry Bureau in 2018 decided to begin culling.
In 2004, the park drew criticism for importing and breeding white tigers, as the rare variant reportedly suffers from genetic defects. All white tigers are descended from a single captured tiger and are therefore propagated by drawing from a limited gene pool.
Then, in 2015, a giraffe gave birth prematurely in front of visitors to the park after mating with her biological sibling. The calf died shortly afterward.
Leofoo Village over the past 10 years has continuously bred and imported giraffes, Animal Skies researcher Sera Lim (林婷憶) said.
Eight of them have died of disease or accidents, the majority of which before the age of 10, even though their average life expectancy is 27, she said.
Many died after being infested with Haemonchus contortus, a blood-feeding parasite also called the “barber’s pole worm” that affects grazing animals, Lim said, adding that it must be treated with dewormers and antibiotics.
One giraffe on a loan from Taipei Zoo died of the condition in 2019 at the age of four after a year-and-a-half in Leofoo Village’s care, despite medication and monitoring, she said.
The giraffe enclosure has also proven to be dangerous, she said, citing life-ending injuries sustained by two giraffes after falling, one that was euthanized in 2015 after breaking its leg and the other killed after falling in a wet enclosure during a typhoon in 2019.
Then in January, the same giraffe that gave birth in front of visitors in 2015 died at 15 years old of enterotoxemia caused by a bacterial infection, leaving only one giraffe at the zoo, Lim said.
Her mate had died earlier in 2015, an autopsy revealing plastic bags in his stomach, she said, adding that it was likely due to illicit feeding by resort guests, as there was no supervision.
Based on this record, association chief executive officer Lin Yi-shan (林憶珊) raised alarm over Leofoo Village’s request to import another three giraffes from a zoo in Mexico and urged the government to reject its application.
As of press time last night, Leofoo Village had not responded to a request for comment.
Of all the zoos in the nation, only Taipei Zoo has obtained certification as an educational site as defined by the Environmental Education Act (環境教育法), Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) said.
There are plans to amend the Wildlife Conservation Act (野生動物保育法) to clarify the rules requiring all zoos wishing to import protected wildlife to obtain this certification, Tsai said.
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan
A 14-legged giant isopod is the highlight of a new dish at a ramen restaurant in Taipei and it has people lining up — both for pictures and for a bite from this bowl of noodles. Since “The Ramen Boy” launched the limited-edition noodle bowl on Monday last week, declaring in a social media post that it had “finally got this dream ingredient,” more than 100 people have joined a waiting list to dine at the restaurant. “It is so attractive because of its appearance — it looks very cute,” said the 37-year-old owner of the restaurant, who wanted to be
RSS