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Introduction
Legislation
Update
Introduction
Zoo
Legislation comes in many forms and varieties. Zoo Legislation with a capital
“L” refers to actual laws and acts of government regarding the setting
up, administration, monitoring, quality, safety and other aspects of
captive wild animal facilities.
Zoo legislation in its greater meaning could include zoo
standards and guidelines created by anyone, from its own local board or
municipality. It can,
and should, include the many national and regional zoo association Codes
of Ethics, guidelines, individual taxon group standards, accreditation
procedures, etc. Zoo
legislation, or one might say the “looking out for” or regulation of
zoos is as complex and varied as are captive wild animal facilities
themselves and the cities, countries and regions where they are
located.
There are many
countries now that have actual Zoo Legislation, with written laws under
local, state and even national government which demand compliance or the
facing of a penalty. The
most dramatic example of Zoo Legislation would be, perhaps, that of the
European Union which controls the zoos of a whole continent. Zoo legislation can also come in
and under other legislation such as Wildlife Acts and Animal Welfare
Acts. Often a few lines or
paragraphs in Wildlife or Welfare evolves into a separate and detailed
piece of legislation.
There are also
countries in which the zoos took control of their standards and
instituted a means of regulating themselves, before government could
come in and, in its often ham-handed manner, create legislation which
would neither regulate irregularities efficiently but also impede
progress. The American Zoo
Association (AZA) is the best example of this situation. Its standards and inspection
procedure is more rigorous than that of any governmental
legislation. This method
works in a culture where peer pressure regarding both quality and ethics
overrides any other consideration.
More and more, national and regional zoo associations are taking
charge of their zoos’ standards because zoo professionals are
increasingly aware that bad
zoos reflect badly on all
zoos.
There are plenty of
countries which do not have any legislation or which want to review and
revise their legislation.
When a country wants to create legislation, they must go through
a tedious process of writing to zoo associations and governments in many
countries to ask them for a copy of their zoo act, or their association
standards, or guidelines for this and that. The zoos which receive
these requests (probably) always comply, but it must be a botheration,
both to the requesting zoo if they have to wait for various countries to
reply, and to the zoos which have to dig out a copy of the their
legislation and send it.
Thereby the reason for this website module. Ultimately we hope to have the
zoo legislation of every country displayed here. Not just Legislation but also
all the associated matters – association constitutions (at least links
to these), animal standards, etc.
We can do this only if people help us.
Currently we have
enough to begin with several regions, South Asia, South East Asia,
Australia, and a bit on East Asia and Africa. Individual countries and states
within these regions have much more legislation and rules than we have
been able to collect … and believe me, we have tried hard to collect it
!
For
some regions and countries, nothing like actual legislation is available
so we have included whatever we
could get that is related to monitoring the keeping, care and disposal
of captive wild animals.
Some of this is taken from notes or interviews or emails from
different zoo people.
Also, some countries, such as Singapore, have such a wealth of
legislation related to captive animal maintenance that it would
overwhelm our site.
However, when we get a copy of individual laws, we will include
them.
Another type of
material is that having to do with Associations. We have gone on the assumption
that people would prefer this now to waiting for actual government
legislation, which would take many years. In any case, it is often zoo
associations which catalyze zoo legislation. An example of that is happening
as we write in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where the Dhaka Zoo organized a
meeting of the South Asian Zoo Association and in connection with that
meeting, formed an association of Bangladesh Zoos and made an Action
Plan for a Zoo Act for Bangladesh.
The Report of that Working group is included in the section on
Bangladesh, under the Bangladesh wildlife legislation. When their zoo legislation is
passed, this report will be removed and the legislation
substituted.
The
idea of assembling zoo legislation in one place came about when I was
asked to write about the Zoo Legislation of South Asia, where I work in
India, for the Encyclopedia of the World’s Zoos. This was understandable that
they should ask me because having lived there and been involved with the
zoos, I could do this with relative ease. After turning in the essay, the Editor
requested me to do South East Asia, however. This was harder. Then East Asia – very difficult,
made possible only because there is probably no legislation for most of
these countries. Living in
Asia as I do, I did not question being asked for any of these
regions. Then came a
request for Australia, Africa, Europe, South America and Eastern Europe
! I began to understand
that there is a problem !
In trying to research these essays via email I collected many
bits and pieces but could not complete some regions.
Then the Central Zoo
Authority, who was beginning to revise their Zoo Act and Zoo Rules,
requested me to compile some information on specific aspects of zoo
legislation and I got the idea for a web module. I first checked with several big
zoo organizations to see if anyone else was in the process of doing this
and, surprisingly, no one
was doing this systematically.
So
here is a beginning. I have
covered some of the most difficult regions first, with whatever I
have. The next most
difficult regions are South America and Africa.
If
you are involved with zoos, I request you to please help with this
potentially very useful project by providing your own country or state
zoo legislation. As
time goes on we will make this module more useful and more
organized. For now, a start
is required and this is it.
I
would like to thank the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare for
providing funding for assistance and extra web space and Dr. U. S. Seal,
of the Conservation Breeding Specialist Group for writing a letter of
endorsement for me to send zoos and governments when asking for
material.
Much legislation is
on the web already and we will try and link into that for additional
detail.
We
are including old legislation as well as new because some of the
countries which are framing their legislation for the first time may be
more comfortable with the wording of earlier documents. The United Kingdom has had
legislation for a long time and we will put all of it up in due
course.
We
welcome any additions, comments, compliments and criticism for this
site. We also request your
patience and understanding.
I am sure there are many better ways of organizing this material
and we will improve in time.
Please send all zoo
legislation you can collect to zooreach@vsnl.com. Thanks in advance.
Sally Walker,
Founder / Secretary
Zoo
Outreach Organisation
Convenor, CBSG,
South Asia
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