Labour call to ban zoos

Labour minister Angela Smith, who called the popular entertainments “relics of the Victorian era”, demanded a national debate on whether zoos should be closed.

With more than a million people expected to visit Britain’s 400 zoos this weekend – traditionally their busiest – the Charities Minister said they caused suffering to sentient creatures that should be allowed to roam free in the wild rather than being kept behind bars.

She urged that they should be prevented from adding more animals to their collections as the first step in phasing them out over the next few decades.

A new Labour government should open talks to start that process after the election, she added.

Zoo bosses hit back, branding Ms Smith “naïve” and insisting their work inspired children to “connect with the wild”.

Ms Smith’s outspoken call came soon after the Government said it wanted a ban on animals in circuses and days after 12-year-old gorilla Yeboah died at London Zoo – the second in two years.

Animal rights campaigners were staging demonstrations at several other zoos over the Easter weekend.

Ms Smith, who earlier this year boycotted an event she was due to attend in her capacity as a minister because it was being held at London Zoo, is ­patron of the Captive Animals’ Protection Society campaign group.

The body believes zoos are part of the entertainment industry and that while they claim to do important work for conservation, endangered and captive bred species are rarely, if ever, released back into the wild.

It says it is wrong to teach children that keeping wild creatures in captivity is acceptable and that in any case most zoo animals, such as giraffes, are not endangered, but simply there to pull in the crowds.

Campaigners argue that it is ethically wrong to place creatures whose natural instinct is to roam in small enclosures – an act they say causes mental distress.

Basildon MP Ms Smith said that while some zoos “tried very hard”, it was time to address the question of animal welfare.

She added: “It’s inappropriate to keep wild animals in captivity in this way.

“You can understand the Victorians who were amazed by what they saw when these specimens were brought back because they couldn’t travel, but now people can travel and they can see animals in amazing films and television documentaries.

“You can’t shut down every zoo tomorrow, but we’ve got to set a point in the future where we don’t bring in any more animals, then set another point saying this is the last zoo.”

She said she had received letters from children upset at the conditions in which animals had been kept.

“It’s partly emotional for me. In my mind I can still see a polar bear with his head swinging from side to side in a concrete enclosure,” she added. “It’s time we moved on.”

Asked whether she would like to see legislation, she said: “I’d like to get a group of people sitting down and discuss how can we end zoos, but we’ve got to be practical about it – there are lots of animals in zoos at the moment.

“No one’s saying they should all be destroyed. We’ve made a lot of progress already.

“If you think back to some of the tatty pets’ corners we used to have and the little zoo we used to have in Basildon, we’ve moved on. No one nowadays finds those acceptable.”

However, Animal Welfare Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said his Government colleague had overstepped her remit.

He said: “Angela doesn’t have responsibility for this area. We’re not going anywhere near zoos.”

David Field, director of London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo, said: “To say stop bringing wild animals into zoos just shows Angela Smith’s incredible naivety about why zoos exist. Yes, we have species like giraffes that aren’t necessarily endangered, but when people come to see the giraffe they learn about all the incredibly endangered species in the next enclosure.

“It has to be a balance. We would never be able to get enough people into the zoo to be able to fund all this [conservation and scientific] work if all we were able to show was the less exciting animals.

“A zoo has an incredible power to connect you directly with nature. It’s unpredictable and different. The animals will react differently all the time.

“It may just be that an animal stands right next to a child – and that’s a life-changing moment.

“If I got the chance to see the FA Cup Final live at Wembley or on TV, I’d watch it live. In the same way I’d prefer to see the animals live at the zoo.”