Tigers sympathize with JonoNewton
The welfare of animals at London zoo is being put at risk by drunken visitors at its Friday night parties, including one incident in which a man poured beer over a tiger before being thrown out by staff.
Another incident this month saw a man strip off and attempt to enter the penguin pool, forcing staff to intervene. There are also unconfirmed reports that a drunken woman tried to enter the lion enclosure in June.
Sources at the zoo have raised serious concerns about the impact on animals’ sleep and stress levels from the lucrative Zoo Lates sessions, which are advertised as an “after party with the animals”.
The world’s oldest zoo has been hosting sessions on Friday night for several years to attract a younger demographic, generating £800,000 a year to fund its prestigious and pioneering conservation work.
Sources told the Guardian that staff concerns about the events have been raised with management. “If an animal escaped [on a Zoo Late], it would be catastrophic,” said one person with knowledge of the zoo’s workings. “During the day, welfare and conservation is of the utmost priority. In the evening, that seems to go out of the window, and the animals become a commodity. That’s not what zoos are about, but there’s a lot of money in it.”
London zoo confirmed the tiger and penguin incidents, but said there was no record of the story of a woman trying to enter the lion enclosure. The zoo also said that two years ago, snakes had to be moved from a glass enclosure after the glass was cracked by a group on a night out. The snakes did not escape.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jul/18...
London Zoo really knows how to treat it's Tigers. If they are not letting cubs drown in ponds they are letting idiots chuck beer at them. The real tragedy is that the zoo has to pull this sh*t to fund it's conservation projects.
