The Alberta SPCA is investigating a Three Hills zoo after photos were posted online over the weekend claiming to show animals at the GuZoo Animal Farm living in unhealthy conditions.
However, the owners of the zoo say it’s an effort by animal rights activists to discredit GuZoo ahead of the April 1 renewal of its Alberta operating licence.
Edmonton-based photographer Nic Burgess said it was a “crucial time” to act.
Burgess visited the zoo on Saturday.
“I was appalled by how the conditions were,” he said. “To me, it’s an animal hoarder who has a zoo permit. He’s just in over his head. He needs help to deal with these animals and these animals need help themselves.”
Burgess posted the photos on Facebook and has received hundreds of messages from concerned people.
Since then, an online petition with over 10,000 signatures is circulating, a letter-writing campaign is underway and the SPCA has been flooded with calls and messages.
“It’s under investigation so there’s not a lot we can say,” said Tim Battle, spokesman for the Alberta SPCA.
“What we can investigate are animals in distress under the Animal Protection Act.”
Burgess, a self-described “photographer and photo-manipulation artist,” said he saw, among other things, dirty enclosures, a kid bleeding, a goat chewing on gum packaging, a monkey cage falling apart and dogs running around agitating the caged animals.
Despite his title, Burgess said the photos are unedited. “I posted them as I took them from my camera.”
Bill Gustafson, who cares for the animals at his family’s farm, said the photos don’t tell the whole story.
He said the goat was bleeding because its horn was torn off during a medical procedure and the animal is fine.
“They always come this time of year because there’s water running and it’s starting to look mucky. You can’t control nature. That’s another reason they come now, the permit renewal, and it looks bad,” he said.
Gustafson said the complainers are only 0.1 per cent of the zoo’s visitors.
In 2007, Zoocheck said in a report that GuZoo tallied 100 violations of provincial standards.
That year the Alberta SPCA laid a charge under the Animal Protection Act, but the SPCA said it was dropped in 2008 for lack of evidence.
Gustafson said the family is not concerned about losing its permit because a few years ago the province asked the family in a zoo development plan: what it would do with the animals if it was forced to close its doors.
“Most of the animals we have here, it would be pretty near impossible to find homes for them,” said Gustafson.
“So Dad put that they would all be euthanized and used for taxidermy. I don’t think Fish and Wildlife really wants that.”
“It’s sad that this has come to this,” said Gustafson. “The biggest fear we have is for our own safety. I have the feeling that one of these days some person that thinks he’s going to make a name for himself by either burning our house down or beating one of us is going to come to think he’s going to be a hero with one of these groups.”
Burgess said he wishes the family no harm and urged polite dialogue on how the animals should best be cared for.
Alberta Sustainable Resources, the ministry responsible for regulating the zoo, did not return calls for comment.
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