The Mayor of Hsin Chu City
Mr Tsai Jen-Chien,
No. 120, Chung-Cheng Road,
Hsin-Chu City.
Taipei,
Taiwan.
R.O.C.
Friday, 27 August, 1999.
Dear Sir,
I first visited the Zoo in Hsinchu City in
February 1998. This was what I wrote in my notes after the visit:
"Hsinchu City Zoo is quite
certainly in the bottom category of zoos. Many of the exhibits are totally unacceptable by
any civilised standard. And they cannot be excused for lack of money as the town is
prosperous and money has recently been spent on landscaping the park. This is an old
fashioned menagerie zoo of the worst type. Having said that, it did have some
redeeming features -. it was quite clean, there were no performance or photography areas
and the visitors were well behaved.
Inmates:
2 hippos, masked palm civets, donkeys, ostriches, owls, ducks, camels, deer , chickens, cranes, peacocks, pheasants, nepal kalij, doves, lamas, pelicans, ponies, 2 tigers, 2 sunbears, formosan macaque, wild boar, white fallow deer, several orangutans (difficult to count in their dark dank dungeons), 2 snow leopards, some ring-tailed lemurs and a gibbon. There was a dreadful holding area at the back with macaques crammed in small containers.
Two of the orangutans had a piece of sacking which they had wrapped round themselves for warmth. One of them was eating a plastic bottle - unfortunately photography was very difficult because of the bars and the dark of their cages. Some of these miserable cages were actually newly built - 3 x 4 x 3 metres - no toys, no climbing frames, no enrichment whatever. All totally featureless. Presumably these orangutans were ex-pets, bought as babies from Borneo.
The snow leopards had a new mesh metal cage raised off the ground with no internal features, no shelter and no privacy - approx. 1 x 2 x 2 metres.
The two sunbears were involved in a frantic stereotypic routine in their exposed and featureless concrete yard (approx. 12 x 5 metres plus chamber at the back).
The five wild boars were in a typical unacceptable concrete menagerie 6 x 6 metres."
I visited Hsinchu again in July 1999. Some of the more rusted cages had been replaced by shiny new steel ones - but to the same miserable specifications. The same animals were staring out in the same gross misery. The only improvement was that the snow leopards have gone. I hate to think of the suffering they endured before they went or how they went or where they are now and what they are now suffering. The sunbears, tigers and lions were out of view sheltering from the heat. The lemurs and the civets were suffering from severe skin disease, probably sarcoptic mange.
My photographs can be seen at:
http://www.jwed.org/hsinchuphot.html
As Mayor of Hsinchu City, I feel you must share my sense of shame about this nasty little zoo. Perhaps you are wondering what can be done to turn it into something the City could be proud of. Frankly, I think it would require a very large amount of money to bring the zoo up to an acceptable standard. And it would probably be impossible to find such money since there are much better zoos already established not far away - the Taipei Zoo and the Leofoo Park.
Please, Mr Tsai, would you consider following the example of cities such as Vancouver which have decided that it is better to have no zoo. The park where the zoo is situated is really very beautiful and could be made into an attractive Botanic Garden at very little expense. Citizens wishing to see animals need only travel to Leofoo or Taipei or watch documentaries on the television.
One of two policies could be adopted - or a mixture of both. The animals could be re-housed in other zoos or they could be left to live out their lives where they are - provided that environmental enhancement measures are taken, no breeding is allowed and no new animals are added to the collection.
I do hope that you will take my comments as helpful and constructive criticism and that action will be taken soon.
Thank you for your attention.
Yours sincerely,
John Wedderburn.