Animal Farm

by Linda Slobodian
Calgary Herald (August 15, 2004)

GuZoo Animal Farm, a roadside zoo 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary, has been the subject of numerous complaints since it opened in 1990. Yet the Alberta government continues to issue temporary renewal operating licences. Herald reporter Linda Slobodian visited GuZoo this summer for a first-hand look at owner Lynn Gustafson's operation.

About 20 dogs, mostly basset hounds, are the first critters that visitors to GuZoo Animal Farm see.

They sprawl near the entrance -- some pregnant, others just had litters -- all scratching themselves relentlessly.

To the left, in an unsupervised petting area, a commotion calms and the dust settles when a screaming pack of children tires of chasing the goats and Zebu (a small, hump-backed Indian cow) and moves on.

Later, owner Lynn Gustafson stands in this pen at the controversial GuZoo, described in 2001 as a place that "compares unfavourably to some zoos in the developing world" by wildlife rehabilitation expert Clio Smeeton, who is president of the Cochrane Ecological Institute, and biologist Sian Waters, of Wales.

Over the years, GuZoo has been criticized for feces-infested cages, animals in distress, animals housed in cramped pens, and inadequate food, water and shelter from the elements.

The GuZoo website says Lynn and his wife Chris got started in "Zoodom" 35 years ago.

"After the first of their six children went off to school they saw a need to expose children to country, farm and animal life," says the website.

After years of offering tours of their domestic animals, they got a permit to house exotic birds, then later a fur licence for foxes, coyotes, wolves, bobcats and lynx.

GuZoo, with a mix of exotic and domestic animals, opened in 1990.

Although the roadside zoo has been expanding and drawing large numbers of visitors each year, the animal farm has been plagued with a litany of complaints over conditions and welfare of the animals.

"Grossly substandard and filthy," wrote Calgary zookeeper Jennifer Long in a 2002 report.

"A disgrace to the people of Alberta and those who care about animals," said retired Toronto zookeeper Marilyn Cole in 1998.

Alternating between chatty, pleasant and defiant, Gustafson, a former fur farmer, is not happy about the latest round of complaints from the public, the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) and Zoocheck Canada Inc. about GuZoo, 100 kilometres northeast of Calgary, near Three Hills.

Concerns about GuZoo were raised in the Alberta legislature last spring.

Gustafson says he's "sick and tired" of the "radical animal activists" that have targeted him for more than a decade.

He says Alberta Sustainable Resource Development, the government arm that oversees the Alberta Animal Protection Act, is of the same opinion.

"They're getting sick and tired of it too, not with me, but with the complaints," says Gustafson.

For years the government has issued GuZoo temporary renewal operating licences, usually for six months -- once for two months -- although the norm for zoos is a one-year renewal.

GuZoo's renewals always come with conditions -- often the same ones previously set and not met -- calling for improvements to cages, water, shelter and stimulation for the animals.

Despite claiming to draw 40,000 to 60,000 visitors a year at $7 per adult, $5 per child, Gustafson only has one employee who helps him and his son.

The three, sometimes helped by an undisclosed number of volunteers who call themselves Friends of GuZoo, look after about 400 domestic and exotic animals ranging from chickens to tigers on the four-hectare farm, four kilometres west of the town of Three Hills.

How often the animals get water depends on whom one talks to.

The employee, who identifies herself as Susan during this visit in late June, says some get water four times a day. Gustafson says they get water "every second day or every day, every day when it's hot.''

"Name one (water container) that's really bad," challenges Gustafson, standing about two metres from green, slimy water, which the Zebu just drank, in a tub attached to a fence.

To his right, a crust of dirt layers the bottom of a tub for two young black bears in a dog-kennel sized cage.

Next door, there's no sign of water in a cage shared by Janet, a young lioness who playfully wraps her jaws over the back of her cellmate Shilo, a small dog.

To his left, a barrel of rain water sits against a building. A miniature horse clops up the steps to reach inside and balances precariously trying to drink.

On this late-June day, the containers are filthy, empty, or hold muddy water. Two weeks later when a Herald photographer visits the farm, he finds conditions the same.

Sustainable Resources is satisfied with GuZoo, insists Gustafson.

"Talk to the minister. He is supposed to have come and made a visit here and he has never come yet," he said.

In the Alberta legislature last May 10, Mike Cardinal vowed to visit GuZoo in response to queries from Edmonton Centre Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman about why a six-month permit had again been issued.

"The permit for this farm continues to to be renewed on a temporary basis year after year despite the fact that it has not complied with the majority of recommendations that were issued to it by an Alberta Environment assessment team in 1999," said Blakeman, responding to complaints she received.

Cardinal said he was aware of the situation and ". . . within two weeks I plan to tour the facility personally and personally inspect it to see what the issue is."

This week, a spokesman said the minister -- who so far has declined comment -- still plans to visit GuZoo.

Gustafson insists "one in 10,000" complaints that come in is legitimate.

He says improvements have been made and Alberta SPCA officials "don't bother coming" very often.

Gustafson says he has favourable letters from many visitors. He calls out to one and asks if he has any problem with GuZoo?

"It's fabulous," says a smiling Collin Grant from Calgary.

GuZoo is one of two roadside zoos of its type in Alberta.

Discovery Wildlife park, on the edge of Innisfail covers 36 hectares and is home to about 90 rescued animals including tigers, lions and bears that are housed in fairly large cages. On a visit there in July, the wildlife-rescue zoo had plenty of clean water in clean containers.

There have been complaints about the fact that visitors can actually kiss a bear at Discovery, but WSPA has expressed satisfaction with the size of cages and other conditions.

Red Deer-based Ken Dean, with the Alberta Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, has been overseeing GuZoo for four years.

"The number of complaints has been diminishing each year. We're seeing improvements," says Dean.

However, critics staunchly insist the animals endure a miserable existence and their basic needs still aren't met.

In a June 30, 2004 letter, Allison Anderson of Coaldale, asked the Alberta SPCA to "take immediate action" regarding conditions at GuZoo.

"Please consider this letter to be a formal complaint and investigate the facility as soon as possible," she wrote.

"I was disturbed by the condition of many of the animals and by the poor design, small size, barrenness, and squalor of many of the animal enclosures," wrote Anderson, a University of Victoria law student who visited GuZoo June 18.

The Animal Protection Act says an animal is in distress if deprived of food, water, care or shelter; is injured, sick, in pain or suffering; is abused or subjected to undue hardship, privation or neglect.

"The animals' basic needs of adequate water, food, shelter and care appear not to be met at this facility.

"The water bowls were often caked and littered with what appeared to be waste and rotten food," she wrote.

Anderson claimed a calf "appeared exceptionally emaciated . . . It seemed to me that this animal was more than thin but near starvation."

She was disturbed by animal carcasses, presumably food sources, including a dead coyote, in a wolf cage.

"They appeared to be rotten, as they were enveloped in flies and discoloured."

Anderson also complained about the shelter, describing it as "insufficient or non-existent" such as the muskox enclosure which left the animal without shade and shelter in summer and winter months.

"The lions and tigers live in empty, cramped quarters," she wrote.

"The practices at GuZoo by no means fall under generally accepted practices of animal management as excluded by S.2(2) of the Animal Protection Act."

There was a time when the SPCA was called out to GuZoo a dozen times annually. Now it investigates about four complaints a year, says Dean.

"When people phone, they have concerns. It's the same concern you have with child welfare concerns, with a child that's kept in the house with no sheets on the bed," says Dean.

Efforts by the SPCA and Sustainable Resources since the winter of 2002 have led to improvements, he says.

"We laid out a whole program of changes that needed to come about."

He points to automatic watering facilities in place more than a year for some of the larger animals, although Gustafson admits the systems don't work in winter months.

"The other animals that aren't subject to those watering abilities rely on manual watering.

"It's our understanding that takes place a minimum of twice a day. We have to go on his word," said Dean.

Other conditions ordered to be met have included cleaning out feces-caked cages and providing some sort of stimulation for the animals. "Many of these animals in captivity, they look for things to do, they need enrichment," says Dean.

He says he's satisfied with GuZoo's response -- putting brush in some cages allowing "smaller animals to hide."

Regarding complaints about animals cramped in small cages, Dean says "nothing in the law" stipulates size.

"That's the problem when people like Zoocheck come along and everyone else comes along -- they're applying zoo standards.

"My understanding in talking with the Calgary Zoo is that they volunteer to follow zoo guidelines."

It is up to roadside zoo operators to voluntarily adopt these guidelines.

Dean doesn't share a concern about rotting animal carcasses in cages. "A lot of those carcasses come from farmers or other places that have dead stock.

"If you look at the lions, when they can tear on a carcass it keeps their neck muscles in good shape . .. it's good for their teeth."

Dean admits the SPCA isn't "completely happy" with conditions.

"We kind of got the ball rolling . . . A lot of what gets done is done by volunteers."

Dean says the SPCA must stay within the guidelines in the Animal Protection Act which outlines minimum standards required for animals.

A review of the Alberta Animal Protection Act is underway and Alberta Agriculture is asking for submissions.

"I'm not sure how much influence is going to come from the people concerned about roadside zoos. I haven't heard anything from that side of it. Most of what I've heard is from the livestock industry," says Dean.

Meanwhile, he points to letters the SPCA gets from people about GuZoo.

"We get letters too from people telling us how much they've enjoyed going to the establishment. The reason they like it is because it so near to the animals. How many people could ever touch a tiger?" asks Dean.

He doesn't know how many people have been bitten by the startled animals during close encounters.

But over the years, animal rights groups have expressed concerns that many have, and repeatedly called for better barriers and less contact between the public and the animals.

Calgary's Wade Krause isn't one of the cheerleaders Dean talks about.

He visited GuZoo this past April.

"I admit that, as a man 38 years of age, I had to choke back tears while looking at these poor animals.

"How can this kind of cruelty be legal?" says Krause.

"I was absolutely shocked at the conditions the animals were living under," says Krause who added "every one of those cages is profoundly barbaric."

When Calgary's R.J. Bailot, a Grade 12 student visited, he was "appalled" at the sight of "half of a (Guinea) Singing Dog being fed to the coyotes," he says.

"It's horrible. The atrocities I saw were horrendous," he says.

"There was a dog that had been left in a cage in which her uterus was hanging on the cold cement floor." He was told the dog had a prolapsed uterus.

"I went the next week and the dog was in a clearer form of distress," says Bailot who contacted the SPCA and was told they'd investigate.

In a follow-up call, he says the SPCA told him "they had not yet heard of this situation with the dog."

Bailot sent a letter to Cardinal's office and received a reply about the improvements at GuZoo, including underground watering, creation of some new enclosures, building of some fences, general cleanup of the site and the establishment of stand-off barriers to protect the public.

"What is the point of stand-off barriers if people could walk right on into the lion's cages?" asks Bailot.

Inspections by Sustainable Resources and the SPCA in February and April this year were conducted "to help us figure out what we needed to have them address," says Dave Ealey, spokesman for Sustainable Resources.

The renewed permit, good to Nov. 30, carries a list of conditions, he says.

"Essentially we ask -- these are similar conditions we apply to all zoos -- that they have appropriate liability insurance, that they let us know when they take animals offsite for display and what sort of situation the display would be and what animals are involved. Also, that the public doesn't have direct contact with any dangerous animals."

Some visitors to GuZoo say they are encouraged to go into all the cages.

Other "key points" in the conditions include: maintaining facilities to ensure animals can't escape, providing a record-keeping system for daily feeding and watering, and a need to ensure that there's enrichment for all species that are located on site.

"The zoo remains substandard and inexplicably GuZoo continues to have its permit renewed," wrote Toronto's Pat Tohill of WSPA in an April 6, 2004 letter to Cardinal.

"Regulations and licensing manuals covering zoos should be revisited to ensure that, in future, Alberta zoos be held to a much higher standard."

He noted that in Alberta anyone keeping wildlife in captivity must provide shelter and care appropriate for the species and staff must have expertise.

"The ministry has criticized him (Gustafson) and demanded upgrading. Few changes have been made. It seems satisfied."

One of three majestic Siberian tigers paces back and forth in a cage.

"The cages are so small for such large animals," says Leslie Zeer, of Medicine Hat, visiting with her daughter Becky. "My husband didn't want us to come out here. He said 'Don't you dare take that baby out there,' " she says. "The alpacas have filthy drinking water," she says, shaking her head.

Behind Zeer, a camel tries in vain to stick its mouth between the bars of its packed-dirt pen to reach grass on the other side.

A nearby cougar manages a half-hearted warning growl. There's not a peep from the listless Singing Dogs.

Dry bread, given to all visitors to feed the animals, is everywhere.

Gustafson asks: "Do you see any animals that are suffering?

"Have you ever seen animals with water? First thing they do is take a little drink, then go and they run through it and they lay in it and they pee in it."

GuZoo's adequately staffed, he says.

"Right now there's three people," he says listing himself, his son and Susan.

As for the dirty pens, Gustafson simply points to the experts' opinions.

"Every report that's done by SPCA, Sustainable Resources . . . the pens were clean and there was no animal welfare problems," he says.

How often are the pens cleaned?

"Ah, every second day. The tigers and lions haven't been cleaned, I can tell you exactly, for about four days."

When it is noted there appears to be far more than four days of feces, he says: "They're not lying in it."

Gustafson issues a challenge to find a thirsty animal and points to the bears.

"These guys probably aren't thirsty. If I give them water right now, they'd probably drink a cup."

Two pails of water go into their trough. The bears both drink thirstily.

"If these animals never had any water, do you think they'd be alive? Just think of it that way," says Gustafson.

"You go to the Calgary Zoo . . .

you'll find the same thing."

The Calgary Zoo has 1,500 creatures (900 specimens and 260 species) with 32 zookeepers.

"Each animal, each species is unique and requires its own expert special care," says Clement Lanthier, director of animal collections and habitat.

Those charged with their care have a responsibility to animals in captivity, he says, listing proper shelter, balanced diet, a clean environment.

"We're not only keeping animals in this space . . . There's so many ways to enrich their lives. Otherwise they get bored," says Lanthier.

Distress manifests in many ways.

"It depends on the species, some will start plucking their heads."

He says there may not be a need to have constant access to water for some species -- except in summer when "it is critical" to give them constant access to quality water.

Like GuZoo, Calgary Zoo allows the public to feed animals. Unlike GuZoo, Calgary Zoo monitors what is fed, under supervision, to certain animals.

"We want to control the quality and quantity of food given to animals. Most of these animals are just like kids, they'll eat anything," Lanthier says.

There is no requirement in law to subscribe to any regulations, he says.

"There's no way to force anyone keeping roadside zoo to raise their standards other than public pressure. As long as visitors go there they'll continue their practices," he says.

"But this is Alberta, this is not southeast Asia where the expectations are different," says Lanthier.

"Conditions remain substandard and in some cases actually worsened," wrote Zoocheck's Julie Woodyer last May to Blakeman and Cardinal.

Cardinal's response was that there are "no violations of the Animal Protection Act or Wildlife Act."

The national animal protection group listed several concerns observed during visits this year to GuZoo.

They included ill or emaciated animals, animals with visible injuries, poorly constructed and inappropriate cages and enclosures, inadequate space for many animals, inappropriate floor surfaces, and inappropriate social groupings such as primate species in solitary conditions.

"The GuZoo debacle has gone on for more than a decade and is an embarrassment to the Province of Alberta. It is time this issue was dealt with once and for all," wrote Woodyer.

In mid-July, Blakeman decided to investigate GuZoo and was troubled by the lack of water and animals just "stuck" in pens with no stimulation.

"There appears to be a lack of knowledge of animal care. They're nice people, really well-intentioned, but they have no background in zoology or animal husbandry," says Blakeman.

"I question the minister granting an extension of that permit again."