I have just been on holiday to Shaldon in South Devon and whilst there i visited a little zoo called Shaldon wildlife park and there they had some Yellow and Red foot Tortoises that looked very bumpy shelled and were fed on a diet of house hold salad i wernt to impressed as they had one uvb bulb in the enclosure that was being hogged by one big Tortoise i have added a couple of pictures:-
I felt sorry for the one being climbed on as it happened about 3 times in the hour we was there.
Oh dear - most of those are in terrible condition. How sad that a place that should know better, puts such animals on display as an example of the species.
Sadly this is the case Sue. Remember my last day out to a well known park in the midlands. These people make me sick.
They were in terrible condition and they obviously knew nothing about caring for them the last of the pictures above that tortoise appeared as tho it was a struggle for him/her to move anywhere and the one humping the other one was doing it to all of them so they looked very distressed
This is so sad....I'm new to all things tortoise and I would have put my trust in zoo's/safari parks had I not found this forum. I thought they were meant to be the experts. Poor tortoises.
(08-10-2010 07:07 AM)shelley Wrote: [ -> ]This is so sad....I'm new to all things tortoise and I would have put my trust in zoo's/safari parks had I not found this forum. I thought they were meant to be the experts. Poor tortoises.
There are very few that even bother to get it right for these poor creatures. If they can't get it right for the crowd pullers, the others don't stand a chance. I was writing and emailing a certain zoo for years about the condition of their tortoises. One reply (and I think the only one if I remember rightly) said that they had done it that way for years with no problems and in the same post mentioned that they had been taking torts as donations from members of the public for years too. They didn't seem to understand the concern when I asked where all these tortoises were now as evidently they were not there in the diml;y lit shed where a few redfoots, Med species and something unrecognisable were hidden away in dirty conditions with nothing but a cabbage and some sprouts to forage amongst. I had to go home at that point as it was too upsetting. The best of it was I was there for the BCG symposium. Talk about a waste of space and time!!!!!!!!!!!!
(08-10-2010 02:50 PM)wizzasmum Wrote: [ -> ] (08-10-2010 07:07 AM)shelley Wrote: [ -> ]This is so sad....I'm new to all things tortoise and I would have put my trust in zoo's/safari parks had I not found this forum. I thought they were meant to be the experts. Poor tortoises.
There are very few that even bother to get it right for these poor creatures. If they can't get it right for the crowd pullers, the others don't stand a chance. I was writing and emailing a certain zoo for years about the condition of their tortoises. One reply (and I think the only one if I remember rightly) said that they had done it that way for years with no problems and in the same post mentioned that they had been taking torts as donations from members of the public for years too. They didn't seem to understand the concern when I asked where all these tortoises were now as evidently they were not there in the diml;y lit shed where a few redfoots, Med species and something unrecognisable were hidden away in dirty conditions with nothing but a cabbage and some sprouts to forage amongst. I had to go home at that point as it was too upsetting. The best of it was I was there for the BCG symposium. Talk about a waste of space and time!!!!!!!!!!!!
Its shocking how these people treat animals the worst bit is they have a brochure that asks for donations to help with the cost which they recon is ninety grand a year and they only raise half that on the gate (so they say) it cost us £18 for a family of four and its in a really popular tourist area so im sure it makes its cash! They also ask for people to adopt the animals too.
It's very upsetting knowing that many people will see it and think they are doing everything right as they are a zoo.