We’re so grateful to have you on board!
January 14, 2024
I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and New Year! Thank you for your generous support of Zoocheck’s wildlife protection work in 2023. I’m happy to report that we made significant progress on a number of issues and we’ve prepared ourselves to tackle several new challenges in 2024.
Before I give you a brief recap of just a few of our 2023 activities, I wanted to let you know that we achieved a very important success just eight days into 2024. It involves our effort to address issues associated with the Nova’s Ark special needs children’s camp in Whitby, Ontario, just east of Toronto.
Nova’s Ark houses approximately 350 animals, including a wide variety of exotic animal species that were acquired even though they are prohibited in the municipality. Many of the animals, including dangerous species such as wolves, lynx and giant constricting snakes, are used for animal interactions with the kids who participate in their programs. I’m sure you can imagine why this is concerning.
Nova’s Ark had applied for an exemption to the Town’s prohibited animals’ bylaw so they could keep their illegal animals. Once we learned the issue was to be dealt with in December 2023 & January 2024, we initiated a very intense research and lobbying effort that brought in numerous experts, other organizations and that involved a wide variety of activities. It paid off.
The day ahead of the January 8th Committee meeting about the Nova’s Ark issue, they submitted a letter to the Town of Whitby rescinding their request for an exemption, stating their intent to comply with the bylaw and indicating they were formulating plans for relocation of the animals. The Town is now following up to ensure this happens.
This was an important initiative and outcome for Zoocheck. Not only does it protect children and animals, it also sets a precedent regarding animal interaction activities involving exotic, wild animals that will significantly help our efforts to address the proliferation of mobile zoos across the province.
I want to mention a few of Zoocheck’s other campaigns and I hope you find what’s going on encouraging. After all these years, I know how challenging campaigns for change can be, but I have to say, in all honesty, that I am encouraged.
Our long-term wild horse protection effort (in collaboration with the Help Alberta Wildies Society) to save the wild horses of Alberta played a key role in the government’s decision to not allow any culling of horses again this winter. Our independent helicopter horse counts were vital in keeping the Alberta government honest in 2023 and we made substantial progress on our technical response report to the Alberta government’s wild horse management plan and our analysis of the thousands of pages of rangeland reports we fought so hard to acquire. Our reports are now nearing completion and will be disseminated widely in Alberta and elsewhere this spring.
Last year also saw the continuation of our effort to address the expansion of the Reptilia Zoo business. As you know, Reptilia has been trying to increase the number of their reptile zoo locations in Ontario and we’ve played a role in preventing that from happening in several cities. In London, Ontario however, despite not having permission to keep prohibited exotic animals, Reptilia opened their shopping mall zoo last April anyway and populated it largely with prohibited animals. The City initiated a legal action against Reptilia in the Superior Court of Ontario and the trial is scheduled for March 18th. We’ve informed the court that Zoocheck will be seeking intervenor status so we can bring forward some additional information relevant to the proceedings. I’ll have more on this in the coming weeks.
Zoocheck has also continued work on the issue of exotic animal and reptile expos (consumer/trade shows with dozens or hundreds of live exotic animal vendors). While the issue moved somewhat slowly in 2023, activity should pick up substantially this year. These shows have flown under the radar for years and we’re committed to continuing to do everything we can to address them.
You may have heard about two recent kangaroo escapes in Ontario that brought renewed public attention to the exotic animal and roadside zoo issue again. I mentioned in a previous communication that we’ll be focusing attention on key aspects of the roadside zoo issue in 2024 and I can let you know that we’ve already been very active in that regard. As we move forward into the year, we’ll be letting everyone know more about what’s going on and how to get involved, so stay tuned.
I should also mention Zoocheck’s efforts to support Senate Bill S-241 (Jane Goodall Act) and the more recent Bill S-15, both federal bills aimed at protecting elephants, Great Apes and other animals. While both bills are active, they face a number of political challenges, so Zoocheck and other leading animal protection organizations did everything possible in 2023 to mitigate them and we continue to push for passage of the bills this year as well. I’ll have additional news on the status of the bills in the coming weeks.
I’m also excited to mention that we’ll be starting an advocacy training program this year. It’s an idea we’ve talked about since before the pandemic and we plan on making it a reality. We’ll have more news about this in the spring, as well as a few other exciting initiatives.
Thank you again for your support. We know that without the generosity of supporters like you, our wildlife campaign work couldn’t happen. We’re so grateful to have you on board as we move forward into the future on behalf of wild animals.
Sincerely,
Rob Laidlaw
CBiol MRSB Executive Director
Zoocheck Inc.