Alberta zoo owner declares his property a church

Ahahaha! Got to give the guy props for trying!

Trying what? Extend the suffering of his animals?

Trying what? Extend the suffering of his animals?


The thing is, if you have ever been there, or know the man, like I have and do, you would know that this entire thing has been a knee jerk reaction by the Ab Gov. to satisfy a very vocal minority group. The facts are this; There have been no animal health issues, the enclosures meet or exceed standards, and the closure was executed on technicalities. Our local MLA has admitted he just wishes to wash his hands of the issue as " I can't please the activists" . Hardly fair to a life long farmer and lover of animals that has spent over 1 million of his own dollars to operate this zoo over the last 20 years.

Trying what? Extend the suffering of his animals?


The thing is, if you have ever been there, or know the man, like I have and do, you would know that this entire thing has been a knee jerk reaction by the Ab Gov. to satisfy a very vocal minority group. The facts are this; There have been no animal health issues, the enclosures meet or exceed standards, and the closure was executed on technicalities. Our local MLA has admitted he just wishes to wash his hands of the issue as " I can't please the activists" . Hardly fair to a life long farmer and lover of animals that has spent over 1 million of his own dollars to operate this zoo over the last 20 years.

No one begrudges him his passions or his good intentions, but some of those animals are not equipped for Alberta winters. And 'meets or exceeds standards' is a cop out. 'meets or exceeds the needs of the animals' is the standard that should be held. I'm surprised some of those animals can survive the winters.

But then, I'm not a big fan of any form of zoo.

I agree in some respects. Zoos are a hot topic period, and many wouldn't agree to ANY zoo or caged animal. These are the people however, that are bombarding Ab F&W and forcing their hand. The problem I have, really, is that a when a vocal minority dictates gov. policy, where does it end? Mr. Gustafson, the zoo owner, does not even have an avenue to appeal or contest the allegations. Even convicted felons get that right.

In the article, it says



And in the linked previous article, it says

Re: the link in question. Zoocheck is a private animal rights group that opposes ALL zoos. They, with the provincial standards in hand, visited the zoo in 2007 and the majority of the "100 violations" , were in fact not violations at all. The standards are checked on a scale of, say, 1 to 10. Zoocheck, setting everything under a 9 or 10, a fail. The facts are, the majority of their points were not a fail and did in fact meet provincial standards. The ones that did not meet provincial standard were corrected.

This place was shut down for good reasons and good riddance.

The thing of it is.... You're full of shit. I have been there!