Dear friends,
Effective immediately, GuZoo Animal Farm can no longer allow you, or any visitor to our zoo to touch any animal that is: cat like, dog like, raccoon like, weasel like, or non human primates like.
What this means is that ALL the exotic baby animals that you cuddled here in past, present and future, will now be behind locked enclosures available for viewing only regardless of age and handle ability.
This mandate has been instated by Sustainable Resources and Development in conjunction with the Fish and Wildlife Department.
These are the facts:
You may not touch any of GuZoo’s lions, tigers, cougars, lynx, wolves, foxes, coyote, bears, skunks, raccoons, lemurs, monkeys, etc. whether infant or otherwise.
This mandate is written in such a way that it does not discriminate between domestic cats and dogs…meaning GuZoo must cage up all Basset hounds (and our family house dogs, Lady and Duffy) and capture all farm cats so the visitors can not touch them.
The implications are that there will no longer be kittens for your children to enjoy in the petting barn and we can longer operate our dog and cat adoption program. We will also be forced to end our contract as Animal Control for the Towns of Three Hills and Trochu.
GuZoo can no longer take any of the above mentioned animals off premise for any reason.
GuZoo is no longer allowed to take in or accept on their property any injured or orphaned wildlife.
GuZoo is no longer allowed to breed their exotic animals.
These mandates apply to GuZoo only…all other zoos in
Alberta can still allow public contact with exotics and breed them as needed.
As you might have guessed, we are a little bit angry by this blatant slap of discrimination aimed directly at our main source of attraction and thus, income. You all know we are not government funded and rely entirely on admission fees and donations to support our facility. Without our main draw (the handling of baby exotics) we are facing some serious financial obstacles.
If this upsets you, we are asking that you write letters…lots of letters. Here are the people and their addresses to write to:
Minister of Sustainable Resources
Hon. Ted Morton
6, 160 Maclaurin Drive
Calgary, AB
Canada T3Z 3S4
GuZoo’s MLA
Richard Marz
#639 Legislature Annex
9718 107 Street
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 1E4
