Over the past few days, the image of two elephants chained by their legs at Hanoi Zoo (Thu Le Park) has attracted the attention of the public nationwide. There is even a campaign to collect signatures to "rescue" the two elephants back to the natural environment.
Most recently, Animals Asia sent a document to the Hanoi People's Committee proposing a plan to move two elephants from Hanoi Zoo to Yok Don National Park (Dak Lak).
In the forest, elephants will howl and roar.
Animals Asia believes that the best option is to move these two elephants back to the natural forest in Yok Don National Park (Dak Lak province) where elephant conservation is being carried out. This organization is willing to sponsor the transportation costs, if the proposal is approved.
"The two elephants are in the final stages of their lives, they have the right to be cared for and live in a semi-wild or natural environment," Animals Asia stated.
The image of an elephant chained by its legs at Hanoi Zoo caused a stir in public opinion.
Living in chains has had a devastating impact on the lives of the two elephants, said David Neale, Animals Asia's global welfare director.
If brought to Yok Don, Thai and Banang (the names of the two elephants) will be cared for by highly experienced experts and receive medical and nutritional care.
In response to Hanoi Zoo's response that moving two elephants back to the natural environment is impossible, a representative of Animals Asia expressed the opposite opinion.
"We have proven that many elephants that have been kept in captivity for a long time, when brought back to the natural environment, show natural behaviors such as howling, roaring... Behaviors that they never showed before when in captivity," Mr. David Neale cited.
Among the 14 elephants in Yok Don is H'khun, who is 67 years old this year. This elephant was brought to the forest in Yok Don in 2018 and is currently participating in the elephant-friendly tourism program of Yok Don National Park.
In addition to H'khun, there are 3 elephants over 50 years old and 3 elephants over 40 years old living healthily in the national park's forests.
Mr. David Neale, Global Welfare Director of Animals Asia.
This director also said that when brought to Yok Don National Park, there is always an elephant trainer (caretaker) to take care of and guide the elephant so that it does not become confused in the new environment and get lost in the residential area.
When returning to the semi-wild environment, elephants are grouped together to explore, forage, and swim in the forests of Yok Don National Park, under the supervision of staff and experts from the organization.
Here, individual elephants will gradually get to know each other, initially from a distance before coming into closer contact to pair up and form herds, ensuring proper elephant living habits.
Staff and foreign experts monitor an elephant in Yok Don National Park (Photo: Animals Asia).
Animals Asia's Global Welfare Director also said that many zoos around the world have decided to stop raising elephants and move them to semi-natural environments. Especially zoos built in urban areas have many limitations in terms of area and facilities.
Many disagreements with Hanoi zoo
As an animal welfare expert, Mr. David Neale could not sit still when witnessing the treatment of the two elephants Thai and Banang at Hanoi Zoo.
He said that since 2014, Animals Asia has supported and cooperated with Hanoi Zoo many times. Sadly, Animals Asia's recommendations and support were only listened to very little by Hanoi Zoo. Therefore, the two sides ended their cooperation since 2018.
Hanoi Zoo representative said that moving elephants can also cause many problems and pose many risks.
"We sent animal welfare experts to help, including Dutch experts who stayed here for up to 6 months. We tried to advise and help build a different living environment for these two elephants, so that they would be healthier and move better, but it was not applied," he said.
To allow elephants to roam freely, Animals Asia supported and designed an electric fence for the Hanoi Zoo. The electric fence lets the elephants know where their boundaries are so they don’t get too close to visitors, while also creating their own space to move around. However, the zoo’s maintenance is not up to par.
Animals Asia believes that the best solution is to move two elephants from Hanoi Zoo to the natural forest at Yok Don National Park (Dak Lak).
Animal welfare experts added that unlike Thailand, India or Myanmar, which have thousands of elephants, Vietnam has very few elephants. Therefore, it is necessary to have a plan to preserve elephants from the risk of extinction.
The expert said that Vietnam urgently needs to build a natural corridor so that herds of elephants that are being separated in different regions can find and live. Only then will wildlife conservation truly be highly effective.
Source link
Comment (0)