It may take as long as six weeks before the Calgary Zoo receives the results from a review of the zoo's facilities and protocols launched after a series of high-profile animal deaths, a zoo spokesperson said Wednesday.
The review panel's findings will first be sent to the Canadian and U.S. zoo associations before reaching the Calgary Zoo, Laurie Herron told CTV.ca. She expects the process will take about six weeks.
The zoo's president has said he would make the findings of the report and the zoo's action plan available to the public.
Critics charge the review, undertaken by a panel of animal experts, most from organizations accredited by U.S. and Canadian zoo associations, is a sham.
But at a press conference to announce the review Tuesday, the president of the Calgary Zoo and the chairperson of the review panel stressed that the review is a legitimate one being undertaken in good faith.
The team of five experts from the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Toronto Zoo, the Seneca Park Zoo and the Vancouver Aquarium, as well as the dean of the University of Calgary's veterinary program, said they will scrutinize everything from staff qualifications and training to the zoo's perimeter fence and all of its records.
The team will spend two-and-a-half days on site at the zoo.
Alastair Cribb, dean of veterinary medicine at the University of Calgary, said he's on the committee as a community expert and will make sure the process is transparent. The university does send students to the zoo for training, but he has never had any personal involvement with the zoo or the accreditation bodies, he said Tuesday.
Calgary Zoo president Dr. Clement Lanthier initiated the review in December when a capybara was crushed by a hydraulic door in its enclosure and killed.
The zoo had earlier come under fire when 41 stingrays died as a result of human error and when a Turkmenian markhor, a type of wild goat, was strangled after it got caught in a rope in its enclosure.
Lanthier told reporters Tuesday that the zoo planned to take the results of the review seriously.
"Just like in any institution, there is always a place to improve what we're doing – our practice, our protocols, our training, our facilities," he said.
The zoo plans to make the results of the review public, he said.
The Calgary Zoo was last accredited by the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums in 2008.
Speaking with reporters Tuesday, the chairperson of the review panel said the zoo could lose its accreditation if serious problems are found.
"It behooves us to make sure that all the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) members are living up to the standards, the code of ethics, and the high level of animal care we expect of AZA-accredited institutions," Nancy McToldridge told reporters. "If they are not, we don't want them."
Animal welfare activists are not optimistic about the outcome of the review, charging that the process is inherently flawed.
Speaking with CTV.ca Wednesday, Zoocheck Canada campaigns director Julie Woodyer said the review by a panel of five animal experts from organizations accredited by U.S. and Canadian zoo and aquarium associations is another example of an industry investigating itself.
"The problem is it's not independent or at arms-length," Woodyer said. "It's more of this self-regulation by industry that ends up, 90 per cent of the time, in whitewash."
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV Calgary's Sneha Kulkarni
