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Disney’s
Claim: The animals receive the best care available.
Reality:
Disney’s record of animal care is dismal. At least thirty-one
animals died before the park even opened, including two West African
crowned cranes who were run over by safari trucks, four cheetah
cubs who swallowed a toxin found in antifreeze, and two Oriental
small-clawed otters who ate poisonous seeds from loquat trees
planted in their exhibit. One visitor to Animal Kingdom noted
a nocturnal kinkajou trying to sleep in a glass case with blaring
lights, a dove trying to incubate her eggs while on display, and
a number of baby animals who were separated from their caged mothers.
Parrots are forced to perform on cue and lizards are carted around
in containers at the pseudo-African theme park.
Disney’s Claim: The animals
residing at Animal Kingdom are not confined, but rather live in
naturalistic habitats.
Reality: Although the “naturalistic”
settings at Disney’s Animal Kingdom are preferable to the
iron-barred cages of zoos of the past, the animals residing at
the Animal Kingdom are still confined. No artificial enclosure
is large enough to accommodate the natural behaviors of animals.
Artificial enclosures may look pretty to people who only have
to look at them for a few minutes, but for animals forced to spend
their whole lives there, they are nothing more than depressing
cages. For many animals in zoos, captivity can cause stress, boredom,
and depression. Animals housed in zoos and aquariums are denied
their basic right to life as nature intended.
Disney’s Claim: Wildlife conservation
is their primary mission.
Reality: Disney’s claim of conservation
is absurd in a commercialized land of fake “habitats”
and real rainforest mahogany souvenirs. In order to build snack
bars and cages for imported animals, Disney bulldozed tens of
thousands of acres of wildlife habitat in central Florida, killing
native gopher tortoises and other animals. Most of the animals
imprisoned at Disney’s Animal Kingdom are not endangered
and are only on exhibit because they are a popular attraction.
Those animals that are threatened or endangered rarely breed successfully
in captivity, and fewer still will ever be released back into
their native habitat.
Disney’s
Claim: They educate millions about the endangered status of animals
in their natural environment.
Reality: The primary purpose of Disney’s
Animal Kingdom, as with all zoos, is to generate money by putting
animals on display for human entertainment, not education. The
signs posted at Disney’s Animal Kingdom provide no useful
information about the species on display, and visitors aren’t
educated how to help animals on their own. Keeping animals in
captivity for our amusement does not teach respect for animals
and their habitat. The animals on display in Disney’s Animal
Kingdom are confined to artificial settings and are forced to
live in unnatural groups. Behavioral patterns are distorted and
heavily constrained by the captive environment. The only thing
that is taught to visitors is that it is acceptable to own and
confine animals for our entertainment.
Disney’s
Claim: They provide sanctuary to animals previously housed in
substandard captive situations and rescue orphans from endangered
habitats.
Reality: When plans to open Animal Kingdom were
made public, ARFF and other animal welfare organizations pleaded
with Disney to use the grounds to provide homes for some of the
1,000’s of wild animals in need of sanctuary right here
in the U.S. Instead, animals were purposely bred or stolen from
the wild, in order to satisfy Disney’s demand for younger
animals or specific species. Surplus animals are an unavoidable
byproduct of zoos. These animals are often sold by third party
dealers to circuses, roadside zoos, research laboratories, and
even hunting facilities.
Disney’s
Claim: They inspire a love of animals and are concerned for their
welfare.
Reality:
Disney has an abysmal history with live animals. Many
of Disney’s early wildlife films, such as White Wilderness
and African Safari, are notorious for their abusive and
staged nature scenes. In some of these movies animals were actually
killed on set to give films an aura of realism. Accusations of
neglect and mismanagement followed the deaths of the last remaining
dusky seaside sparrows after an unsuccessful captive-breeding
program at Disney World in 1987. Between 1985 and 1990, four of
Disney’s six original dolphins died after they had been
captured from their natural habitat. Two of the dolphins died
from easily preventable accidents. In 1990, Disney pled guilty
to violating wildlife laws and paid close to $100,000 in fines
after illegally removing the nests and eggs of egrets and ibises,
and brutally killing dozens of black vultures because they were
“disruptive.” In 1996, Disney ignored pleas not to
produce a live-animal remake of “101 Dalmatians,”
because it would lead to an excess of unwanted dogs. Dalmatians
flooded shelters soon after the movie was released. Claims of
concerns for animal welfare are clearly negated by such a long
history of animal abuse and neglect. The only thing that Animal
Kingdom appears truly concerned with is exploiting animals for
Disney’s profit. |
Robert
Iger, CEO