Poor animals...

[Rhapture]

So I was directed to this news report yesterday about this roadside zoo in Alberta. It lead me to this facebook page with photos people have taken of the animals there. I am going to warn you that some are pretty graphic. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9518425359

I was crying my eyes out looking at these photos and signed the petitions to try to get this guys zoo licence taken away (the poor goose that is being picked on by the other birds really made me break down). I know there are two sides to every story but after seeing these photos there is just no excuse for this. People have also responded that this has been an issue with this place for years and yet every time there are investigations he gets seems to get his licence back. It makes me so sad/angry that someone can get away with this for so long. The province has responded that they will be investigating and I hope that something is REALLY done about it this time.

[TygerDarkstorm]

Those poor little guys. I hope they get taken away from there and placed somewhere that will give them the proper care.

[Dewclaw]

Is there anything we can do to get this place shut down and the owner arrested?

[Rhapture]

Is there anything we can do to get this place shut down and the owner arrested?

There are links here where you can email the officials that are in charge of his zoo licence renewal in April: http://www.peta.org/action/action-alert ... aspx?c=pfs

You can also sign the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/guzoo/petition.html

I know that there has been a response that there is going to be an investigation but honestly after some research I found reports of investigations as well as several charges for violations and abuse dating back to 1992. I just don't understand how he gets away with it. The biggest thing you can do is make your voice heard. With social networks having the power to spread news they way they do now we can hope that this won't get swept under the rug again and this place gets shut down.

[Lotusii]

Oh my god that is so terrible. I couldn't even look at those pictures for more than a few seconds. I really hope something gets done about this. There is no reason whatsoever to torture animals like this. I hope those poor, poor animals can be saved.

[Saturo]

Doesn't Veph live in Alberta?

Okay, let's do this 4chan-style. Let's all mail Veph a bunch of Guy Fawkes' masks! :D

But yes. This sucks. I hope they're closed down soon.

[Vephriel]

Yeah, I'm in Edmonton Alberta. This is the first I've heard of this, how appalling.

[Rarako]

Consider this petition signed. What poor beast...

[Redith]

WHAT THE HELL MAN!! I thought at first it was just some weird farm with Malnurished livestock (that alone was enough to piss me off) But they actually had lions, and some tigers, WHAT THE HELL? And how do you miss a few dead animals in their cages? THEY LOOKED LIKE THEY HAD BEEN THERE FOR A FEW WEEKS!!!
Not to mention how dangerous it is for people. Well fed big cats will sometimes attack people if they were to get loose, but I promise you underfed cat DEFINATLY will attack and eat someone

[Miraga]

I can't even begin to describe how dangerous is for the animals and for the visitors. The cages are obviously not secured properly for the large cats. Definitely an accident waiting to happen. I signed the petition and hope they get shut down... or put in a cage exposed to the snow and given frozen food and water.

[Vephriel]

... or put in a cage exposed to the snow and given frozen food and water.

This. Anyone who can heartlessly abuse animals in this fashion should be subjected to the exact same treatment.

[Miraga]

They take baby animals away from their mothers ON PURPOSE in order to make them more docile. This is extremely dangerous and stupid. http://www.guzooforever.com/cutebabyani ... imals.html

"Many of the animal babies we make available for the visitors to handle here at the GuZoo are animals that must be socialized with humans at an age when they are still sucking milk. For many species, this means we must take the baby permanently away from its natural mom before their eyes open. At this young age, an infant wild animal quickly forgets what its natural mother smells like and so, accepts humans to be their new family. "

I'm sorry, what? Hand feeding a wild animal doesn't make it tame. Do they realize how much work it took just to get to the common dog? They allow children to "play" with the baby lion and even keep a dog penned in with it.

"With many species here at the GuZoo you will find pairs of animals housed together where one individual is hand raised and the other is captive born but natural mother raised."

I can't make words. I hope everyone who reads this signs the petition. This is completely unacceptable.

[Rhapture]

Found this on the facebook page: https://www.humanesociety.com/second-le ... -farm.html

It's a letter from the Chairman and CEO of the humane society to Premier Ed Stelmach begging for immediate action to be taken. What scares me is this quote: "In a CTV news report yesterday, the owner of Guzoo Farm, Mr Gustafson is quoted: “...if he is forced to give up his animals, they will never go anywhere else. "That lion is worth $10,000 to taxidermy, and if that's what these people want -- that's what they'll get.".” From the sounds of things this man is gonna kill these animals and sell them off as taxidermy if he is forced to close. I really really hope they get to these poor things before that happens.

[Silivren]

What made me cry was the lion.. his noble eyes so full of sadness and pleas of... "Help Me".. I had to wipe away a few tears..

[Cerah]

They take baby animals away from their mothers ON PURPOSE in order to make them more docile. This is extremely dangerous and stupid. http://www.guzooforever.com/cutebabyani ... imals.html

"Many of the animal babies we make available for the visitors to handle here at the GuZoo are animals that must be socialized with humans at an age when they are still sucking milk. For many species, this means we must take the baby permanently away from its natural mom before their eyes open. At this young age, an infant wild animal quickly forgets what its natural mother smells like and so, accepts humans to be their new family. "

I'm sorry, what? Hand feeding a wild animal doesn't make it tame. Do they realize how much work it took just to get to the common dog? They allow children to "play" with the baby lion and even keep a dog penned in with it.

"With many species here at the GuZoo you will find pairs of animals housed together where one individual is hand raised and the other is captive born but natural mother raised."

I can't make words. I hope everyone who reads this signs the petition. This is completely unacceptable.

What makes it even worse is this seems to be a Creationist Zoo, something that should be an oxymoron in itself:

"Projecting human emotions onto animals is simply not logical. The way you feel for a lost offspring cannot be equated with the emotional response a female animal has for hers. God created mother animals with a natural instinct to guard and nurture their young. This motherly instinct ensures a better chance for survival of the offspring.


In the wild a female animal of any given species may produce anywhere from 5 to 50 babies in its life time. Studies have shown that Nature is cruel, and most young animals of any species parish long before they reach adulthood. If mother animals had the same emotional attachment that humans have for their offspring I am sure we would see animals suffering from depression and other emotional disorders brought on from years of witnessing her children get eaten alive. Animals are not designed to have emotional attachments to their offspring. God knows that would be too cruel."

Could these people get any more stupid? First of all, a zoo, of all places, shouldn't be spouting creationist crap, and it's just plain unprofessional to have glarring typos on their company website.

Far more importantly, however, is how callously they regard those poor animals. Anyone who has a pet knows animals do so feel emotion, maybe not in the exact same way that we feel it, but they have emotions nonetheless. Purposefully causing stress to mother and baby animals just to make them more "entertaining" to people stupid enough to visit this "zoo" (more like an animal concentration camp) in the first place is disgusting.

Petition signed. No living creature should have to endure such despicible conditions, being "cared for" by such heartless excuses for human beings.

[Arantxa]

I know this is an old post but when I read it (I couldn't look at the pictures) I still went ahead and signed the petition. I hope they take this place down and the animals can have a better future ahead of them.

It is so sad to know that there is so much animal cruelty in the World. The saddest is also that there are some places in the world that allow them. I recently became aware of the killing of pilot whales in Denmark (Faroe Islands). I looked it up on youtube and read about it and I could not stop crying.

...and the owner of that Zoo should be eaten by a Lion!

[Redith]

"In a CTV news report yesterday, the owner of Guzoo Farm, Mr Gustafson is quoted: “...if he is forced to give up his animals, they will never go anywhere else. "That lion is worth $10,000 to taxidermy, and if that's what these people want -- that's what they'll get.".”

Hmmm...hey Velph could I come hide in your basement for a few weeks? I need a place to hide from the cops after I snipe this guy in the head with a 7.62x51mm M40.

[Arantxa]

"In a CTV news report yesterday, the owner of Guzoo Farm, Mr Gustafson is quoted: “...if he is forced to give up his animals, they will never go anywhere else. "That lion is worth $10,000 to taxidermy, and if that's what these people want -- that's what they'll get.".”

I hope he pays dearly, in his own flesh, for what he has done to the animals.

[Rhapture]

The sad thing is that this guy is still operating even after all of the attention it has been getting. He has been given a temporary licence to stay open while they "investigate". This has happened in the past and this guy always ends up getting his licence renewed after the investigation with conditions of him cleaning up his act. The next year rolls around and the terms were not met so the cycle starts again. It makes me sad that someone can get away with this for over a decade and those involved let it happen.

[Tsiya]

Scariest part is, I was flipping through the pics and just reading the comments(couldn't stand any more pictures) and it seems there are RESCUES giving this guy animals to care for that they've removed from bad situations. Who the &^%#&*#@*%^&#*($ would leave a cockroach there after seeing it?