SHAR­LENE RAM­PER­SAD

If the state bows to mount­ing pub­lic pres­sure to move the Em­per­or Val­ley Zoo from Port-of-Spain for the safe­ty and well-be­ing of its an­i­mals, a pri­vate com­pa­ny is of­fer­ing up 40 acres of land in cen­tral Trinidad where a new zoo and con­ser­va­tion cen­tre can be built.

The de­bate be­gan on so­cial me­dia on Fri­day when the zoo an­nounced that one of its new­ly ac­quired ba­by red kan­ga­roos had died from stress and trau­ma caused by fire­works set off on In­de­pen­dence night.

There were calls for the im­por­ta­tion of noise-less fire­works, a ban on reg­u­lar fire­works and re­lo­ca­tion of the zoo.

Among those weigh­ing in on the is­sue was Sou Sou Lands chair­man, Lenny Sankers­ingh, who said an of­fer of land was ini­tial­ly made in 2012 and still stands. The land was of­fered as a do­na­tion, so the state will on­ly have to foot the bill for the nec­es­sary in­fra­struc­ture.

“I would like to re­spect­ful­ly sug­gest that they could look in­to it fur­ther. We think it is an ide­al site for that pur­pose and there could be sev­er­al vari­a­tions as to what can be pro­posed and what can be im­ple­ment­ed but it should be looked at a dis­tinct pos­si­bil­i­ty, es­pe­cial­ly when we see what is hap­pen­ing at the Port-of-Spain site with the nui­sance in terms of the loud mu­sic and the fire­works which will con­tin­ue over the years I ex­pect,” Sankers­ingh said.

“The death of one of the kan­ga­roos is cer­tain­ly a tragedy, I would sug­gest they look in­to it.”

The land is lo­cat­ed in Chick­land, Ca­paro, There is easy ac­cess to the land as the Chick­land/Ca­paro Road bor­ders the prop­er­ty.

Sankers­ingh said over the years he has no­ticed a marked re­luc­tance to move the op­er­a­tions of the zoo.

“I know peo­ple are think­ing Port-of-Spain is a cen­tre. It is sur­round­ed by ur­ban ar­eas like Diego Mar­tin, Mar­aval, the East­ern Main Road com­mu­ni­ties and they will have easy ac­cess to a zoo,” he said.

If a de­ci­sion to move is made in the fu­ture, the zoo’s cur­rent lo­ca­tion can be kept open to ac­com­mo­date small­er an­i­mals and those not af­fect­ed by loud nois­es from mu­sic and fire­works, Sankers­ingh sug­gest­ed.

“It could still be used for those kinds of an­i­mals that will not be dis­turbed by fire­works and loud nois­es—if you have any such an­i­mals. It could work with cer­tain vari­a­tions but they have out­grown that lo­ca­tion, es­pe­cial­ly with the types of an­i­mals that they have been bring­ing re­cent­ly.”

Nei­ther Agri­cul­ture Min­is­ter Clarence Ramb­harat, nor cu­ra­tor of the zoo, Gupte Lutch­me­di­al, could be reached for com­ment. How­ev­er, pres­i­dent of the Trinidad An­i­mal Pro­tec­tion Agency (TAPA) Rex Chookolin­go said he be­lieved the zoo should be closed com­plete­ly and the an­i­mals sent to sanc­tu­ar­ies where they can live out their lives in their nat­ur­al habi­tats.

Chookolin­go said he un­der­stands that idea might not be eas­i­ly ac­cept­ed, so he sug­gest­ed re­mov­ing the zoo from the city.

“This lat­est in­ci­dent, how­ev­er, is not the first time that an­i­mals have suf­fered as a re­sult of fire­works. Every year, be it Old Years Eve, In­de­pen­dence, or oth­er cel­e­bra­tions, an­i­mals suf­fer tremen­dous­ly from the ex­plo­sive sounds and lights caused by fire­works. Re­search has shown that dogs, cats and oth­er do­mes­tic an­i­mals, as well as wild an­i­mals, are of­ten killed as a re­sult of these per­va­sive dis­plays of noise and lights,” he said.

He agreed that the Chick­land site could be a vi­able op­tion for mov­ing the zoo.

“Think about if we have some kind of nat­ur­al dis­as­ter and an­i­mals es­cape the zoo. They would be run­ning straight on­to the streets of Port-of-Spain and if that hap­pens, po­lice would have no choice but to kill them be­cause it is their job to pro­tect peo­ple.