ENDCAP Conference Update
- Magor Imre Csibi MEP speaks passionately about animals in Romania's zoos
Europe’s failing zoos
Animal welfare organisations from across Europe are calling on the European Commission to address the poor conditions for wild animals in zoos in Europe, to raise standards in animal welfare and to ensure that European legislation is effectively applied.
In an event at the European Parliament in Brussels last week, the Born Free Foundation joined forces with 30 other animal welfare organisations, under the coalition name ENDCAP, to raise awareness about the plight of millions of wild animals in thousands of zoos in Europe. Attended by key Members of the European Parliament, representatives from European animal welfare organisations and the EU-accredited press, speakers provided evidence which confirmed that the EC Zoos Directive, the specific European legislation to protect wild animals in zoos, is failing in its objectives. Animals in zoos across Europe are being kept in sub-standard and unacceptable conditions.
Daniel Turner, spokesperson for ENDCAP, the pan-European coalition aiming to improve the welfare for wild animals in captivity in Europe, and Senior Programmes Officer at the Born Free Foundation, described conditions for many thousands of animals in Europe’s zoos as “appalling and non-compliant with European required standards”. Revealing one hundred images of wild animals in sub-standard conditions in zoos throughout the European Union, Mr. Turner explained that “such conditions fail to provide a suitable environment and cause animals to develop abnormal, often harmful behaviour. Such treatment of animals in Europe in the 21st Century is unacceptable.”
- Mojca Drcar Murko MEP signs the campaign postcard
Speakers also included Will Travers, CEO of Born Free Foundation and parliamentarians Caroline Lucas MEP, Mojca Drcar Murko MEP and Magor Imre Csibi MEP who denounced conditions in zoos as currently inadequate for wild animals. They called on the European Parliament and Commission to seek to ensure wild animals are protected by the law and that further animal welfare provisions are required to ensure this is achieved.
ENDCAP’s objectives include:
1. To ensure the Directive is properly implemented and enforced in all 27 Member States.
2. To call on the Commission to establish guidelines of best practice to aid National and Regional Governments, and the zoos themselves, to best interpret the requirements and to raise the standards in animal care and husbandry.
3. Revision of the Directive to include further animal welfare provision by incorporating the Five Freedoms and other amendments to strengthen and improve the Directive.
In 2007, ENDCAP launched an initiative called “Europe’s Forgotten Animals”, which aims to raise welfare standards for wild animals in zoos, circuses, dolphinaria, animal sanctuaries and those kept as pets. This initiative continues, but has taken a stronger focus on animals in zoos, which are the only captive wild animals to have protection under European law. Investigations have shown that many European countries are failing to effectively implement and enforce the law and conditions for many thousands of animals in thousands of zoos are below minimum standards.
ENDCAP is calling on the European public, which has been horrified that wild animals are still kept in conditions most would relate to the Victorian era, and encouraging people to ‘send a postcard’ to the European Commissioner for the Environment to encourage and influence higher welfare standards in zoos in Europe. The postcard, which is part of a European wide coordinated strategy, has become a vital campaign tool and displays images of 27 wild animals in inadequate conditions in 1 zoo in each of the 27 European Union Member countries, identified by the nation’s flag. Please help and support this campaign to improve the lives of wild animals in zoos in Europe – download, print, sign and send the postcard.
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More information on Europe’s failing zoos
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