Animal protection groups blasted the Taipei Zoo’s hosting a birthday party for giant panda cub Yuan Zai (圓仔) on Sunday, accusing it of misleading the public about the proper way to treat wildlife and of mistreating the cub with its endless commercial gimmicks.
The 34kg cub, which turned one on Sunday, was treated to a giant ice cake made of beetroots, apples, pineapples and carrots. Zookeepers also showed her several bamboo branches decorated with signs marked with different professions — following the traditional practice called zhuazhou (抓周), in which a one-year-old child chooses from different items symbolizing various professions to give their parents an idea about what their children are interested in.
Yuan Zai picked up four of the signs: painter, engineer, flight attendant and teacher.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Environment and Animal Society of Taiwan chief executive Wu Hung (朱增宏) said the zoo claims to be an educational facility, but its practice of treating animals too much like human beings could give the public wrong ideas how to treat wildlife.
Wu Hung also accused the Taipei City Government of violating animal welfare because the zoo frequently using the animals for commercial purposes.
Pandas are native to Sichuan Province in China and moving them to Taiwan — even if they are kept in large air-conditioned rooms — are a travesty that goes against animal welfare and the laws of nature, Wu Hung said.
The zoo’s actions are in essence “imprisoning” an entire panda family, he said, referring to Yuan Zai and her parents.
What the zoo should be teaching is that “wildlife should not be put on display and they should be allowed to live in their natural habitat,” Wu Hung said.
However, since the pandas arrived in Taiwan, the zoo has done nothing but try to capitalize on their novelty, he said.
The zoo’s claims of helping with panda conservation while providing such a bad example of how to treat them is horrifying, Wu Hung said.
He added that the zoo should start by introducing local fauna and helping Taiwanese understand their own environment.
Life Conservationist Association’s Monitoring Committee for Animal Protection executive director Ho Tsung-hsun (何宗勳) said it is already wrong to keep animals in a zoo, but for the zoo to give more care to one over the others is an insult to life.
“Would Yuan Zai become an engineer or a flight attendant just by picking those bambloo plaques made by the zoo?” Ho asked.
There are many animals that are born in the zoo every year, and there is no reason other than commercial gain for the zoo to focus solely on Yuan Zai, Ho said.
Citing data from the zoo, Ho said that orangutans, a lar gibbon, black-and-white ruffed lemur, white rhinoceros, bongo, Przewalski horse and the hog-nosed coon all gave birth in the past year.
The zoo responded to the criticism by saying that was only able to hold simple birthday events for elephants and gorillas — which mainly consists of stacking foodstuff into the shape of a cake and giving extra food to the parents — because of limited manpower and a busy schedule.
The zoo is not uncaring toward other creatures, but it cannot afford to hold birthday celebrations for all of them, citing as an example insects, which lay dozens of eggs at a time, it said.
Compared with last year, the number of visitors to the zoo increased by 50 percent to about 2.4 million people — including 1.6 million who visited the panda exhibit, it said.
The zoo added that it has heard the complaints about not paying enough attention to other animals and would seek to rectify the situation.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
RSS