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.
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