interesting
The FWS (fisheries and wildlife service) will only let American zoos import an animal from another country (even just a zoo from another country) if they also give money to that animal's In Situ conservation.
This makes sense... why have an animal unless you're helping to conserve it. It's actually a beneficial clause. However, it is providing hindrances where it shouldn't...
For example, an American zoo wanted a Congo basin alligator (not the official name) from a Canadian zoo and all the cites permits, fws permits, etc were filled out. The American zoo even had money to give to an in situ conservation program, but the previously existing program had disbanded and was no longer functioning. So meanwhile the alligators in captivity need to interbreed amongst themselves and the more diversity the better, but the American zoos cannot bring in fresh genes for the pool until they kick start a whole new conservation program in the wild. Which is THOUSANDS more dollars...
The argument has been made by the FWS that yes, zoos should start in situ programs if they aren't there...
but the counter argument is that we should be doing the best for our animals that we have in captivity until there is a program in place. We can't just halt the whole ex situ program while waiting for an in situ to get started. Nobody is taking the alligators from the Congo, they are just moving them from one zoo to another for breeding.
It seems as though animal shipping is a whole lot of hassle.
This makes sense... why have an animal unless you're helping to conserve it. It's actually a beneficial clause. However, it is providing hindrances where it shouldn't...
For example, an American zoo wanted a Congo basin alligator (not the official name) from a Canadian zoo and all the cites permits, fws permits, etc were filled out. The American zoo even had money to give to an in situ conservation program, but the previously existing program had disbanded and was no longer functioning. So meanwhile the alligators in captivity need to interbreed amongst themselves and the more diversity the better, but the American zoos cannot bring in fresh genes for the pool until they kick start a whole new conservation program in the wild. Which is THOUSANDS more dollars...
The argument has been made by the FWS that yes, zoos should start in situ programs if they aren't there...
but the counter argument is that we should be doing the best for our animals that we have in captivity until there is a program in place. We can't just halt the whole ex situ program while waiting for an in situ to get started. Nobody is taking the alligators from the Congo, they are just moving them from one zoo to another for breeding.
It seems as though animal shipping is a whole lot of hassle.