Animal deaths due to human error ‘significantly greater’ than at similar facilities in North America
The number of animal deaths at the Calgary Zoo due to human error in recent years is “significantly greater” than at similar facilities in North America and is “indicative of an underlying problem,” according to the Globe and Mail. An independent report on the zoo, which was released Thursday, stated, “An increasing mortality at the zoo over the last few years and a clear increase in deaths that are human-related and in many cases could have been avoided by prompt and more aggressive response to identified problems.” The report was commissioned last December, after the zoo said it would investigate a series of accidents and animal deaths in the 2000s. These included the death of a capybara, the world’s largest rodent, which was pinned by a hydraulic door and crushed to death. A knife was also left in a western lowland gorilla enclosure, and a Turkmenian markhor (goat) hanged itself on a toy. Zoo officials maintained that the incidents were unrelated, even after critics said something was rotten at the zoo.