Saara Rizzo wants to see changes at the Chippewa Park Wildlife Exhibit.
The Thunder Bay woman started a Facebook page calling for a shift in values at the exhibit to conservation and wildlife rehabilitation.
“I think times are definitely changing and people are more concerned with those things now. Simply having animals on display in cages for the sake of staring at them doesn’t really fly anymore,” Rizzo said.
“I think people want to see a purpose behind the animals being there.”
Rizzo started the Facebook group in early July after creating an online petition asking the City of Thunder Bay to help revamp the exhibit.
The Chippewa exhibit garnered attention earlier this week when a picture of a moose circulated Facebook with accusations about the animal being underfed. Those claims were disputed by the park’s supervisor Gordon John, who stated the moose had a healthy diet.
The moose was brought to the zoo when it was just two days old five years ago after its mother had been killed.
Rizzo said she wants to see the park’s wildlife exhibit become a wildlife rehabilitation centre where an animal is rescued but eventually released back into the wild.
“If maybe we shifted from housing an animal long-term for the sake of our entertainment to housing them short-term for rehabilitation purposes, it would be a better use of the funding and space available,” she said.
Rizzo believes the animal enclosures are small at the exhibit and the animals aren’t provided with much stimulation.
She’d also like to see more of an educational component to the exhibit.
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And since starting the Facebook group, she’s realized she isn’t alone in her concerns.
Rizzo hopes to collect enough signatures to present to city council.
“Instead of getting angry about the issue and lashing out, we’re hoping to work with the city and the Chippewa exhibit to implement positive changes and find solutions,” she said.
At-large Coun. Aldo Ruberto said if enough people came forward wanting to see change at the park, council would definitely look at the issue.
But he feels the park is already a sanctuary for rescued animals.
“They deal with rescued animals all the time,” he said, noting there are some animals that can be released back into its natural habitat and others, like the moose currently residing in Chippewa, that can’t.
“If it’s a baby moose they discovered because the mother was killed, if you release it into the wild, it’s not going to survive. If it’s an animal that hasn’t been raised in the wild and you release it in the wild, that’s not a good thing,” Ruberto said.
The wildlife exhibit is monitored by an international organization that ensure the animals are being provided the proper care and Ruberto said a lot of negative comments about the exhibit are made by people who haven’t been to the park in a long time or talked to the caretaker.
“They walk by, they look and assume a lot of things that quite frankly are not true,” he said, citing the allegations of the undernourished moose as an example.
“That sanctuary has been there a long time. The animals are well fed, well taken care of,” said Ruberto.
