I have been sent letters of support, mostly from animal care professionals i.e. cattle farmers, who have expressed their understanding of the difficulties encountered in maintaining animals while at the same time trying to educated and keep the public happy.
To those people who have condemned us and judged us from photos seen on the Internet, I ask you not to be swayed by one person's bias angle on a situation. We don't have a Face Book account, I have never been on the site and I can't view the photos without signing in, but I finally got to see some of these photos (a nice person sent them in an email). Please understand that those photos do NOT show the whole story. It is obvious to me, that the author/photographer had deliberate intentions of portraying our farm as a terrible place. Also, some of the captions corresponding with photos contain lies or at best un-truths. However, in the author/photographer's defense, it is possible that these were not lies, but incorrect assumptions on his/her part.
For example, the tortoise has and always has had a heat lamp AND a UV light. Perhaps the author/photographer didn't recognise these devices. The photos taken of various animals deliberately showing the snow covered water dishes, can't show the other side of the enclosure, the presence of smaller water dishes used only during winter. Many enclosures have winter water dishes and summer water dishes and many of these dishes are placed where the public can't see them. Just because the photographer couldn't see or choose not to show his audience the water, doesn't mean there isn't any.
Having said that, I invite everyone who was negatively influenced by those photo essays to come and visit our facility for yourselves. I can write until I am blue in the fingers, and defend those photographs or explain the whole story, but it won't convince you, unless you see for yourselves. So come. If, at the end of your visit and after approaching us with your concerns you are still unhappy, we will gladly refund your admission fee.
We do a lot of wonderful things here for people and animals. Hundreds of animal lovers forced to give up their pet (for any number of reasons) have chosen us as their animal's second chance because they feel we can do the job right. If you feel we are lacking, then please join our volunteer program, pick up a shovel and show us how to do it better. We welcome constructive criticism and manual labour. We can't do this alone.
Thanks for your support and hope to see you soon!
22 comments:
Nic Burguss the guy that took those PHOTOS I found out is an actual PHOTO MANIPULATOR by trade. Just google his name and it comes up!
So sOrry you had to go through this!
With all due respect, it's the authorities who will determine how "fit" your facility is for these animals. Misleading or not the photos revel some shocking conditions - that you cannot deny.
That's all very interesting, but what about ZooCheck? They've obviously been inspecting for years and aren't just someone who stopped by with the motivation to show how terrible your zoo is. http://bit.ly/fe78d8
I think what you are doing is an amazing thing...God Bless You! Hopefully one day we will get there to see it for ourselves.Our dad loved cats when he was with us and Lynn reminded me of that love when I used a picture of him with the big Kitty on a bench in the hope people saw what I saw on my profile.....Love from the Wiebe Family
Ill start off by saying i am not an activist i am just a concerned individual who sees a lot of wholes and shocking comments in your side of this horrific story.
Im curious if you say there a waterers for winter why you have volunteers say that can eat snow. Now heres an experiment for that take a 5 gallon pail pack it full of snow and bring it inside. Wait for it to melt and see how much water is in it. thats a lot of snow you would have to eat to obtain a small amount. You cant survive off eating snow so why assume an animal bigger than you can. If in fact there are waterers for the winter that public cant see why would YOUR volunteers not defend with that. Are you then to say that your volunteers can not see them either. There are plenty of cages that you can clearly see the entirety of the cage and see no waterer that is heated for winter conditions.the pictures may be a representation of some of the worst conditions but we are focusing on them because otherwise nothing will change. example: you focus on the light in the tortoise cage not the fact that the cage is very clearly to small and lacking clean water. not to mention food that is potentially toxic. Your business continues taking in animals when stating that you lack proper funding and resources. Now do you honestly think that your doing the animals any good by bringing them into a zoo that is already maxed out on budget and lacks proper staffing? Also there are not just one set of pictures from one person stating these condition. Ask one of your volunteers to show you the accumulation of photo's and videos taken by a number of concerned visitors.
There are videos of conditions in warmer months where these conditions are still the same. Although Mr. Gustafason has said you have a strict regiment when spring arrives. Even from years ago when conditions where still the same or maybe even better Zoocheck had a vet come in and they took photos and witnessed some appalling conditions in the warm months. with over 100 VIOLATIONS. I could go on for ever. If the facility needed help it was your responsibility as a private Zoo to look for all means.
My two Cents
Steven J Carnegie
The Calgary zoo is a real zoo with proper animal care and proper facilities to house the varieties of animals. You have a jail for animals where they go to die. Even if I had not seen the photos on Facebook, I would still consider your facility to be in terrible shape, No animal should ever be allowed to be mistreated in your zoo. You should close your Jail for good. What ever little money you make from it is clearly not enough to properly feed the animals. which is apparent from the donations you have recently received. these people are not donating because they appreciate the zoo, they are donating because they feel sorry for the animals.
Ive been defending Your Establishment for years but never so fervently as the last few days im tired of the skewed biased media that abounds I finally dug up my photos that show several CLEAN Enclosures, CLEAN WATER, CLEAN FOOD DISHES etc.. I find it funny the horror shots are ALWAYS in the winter. Its a testament to why its not as nice ... Ppl dont get it please feel free to share my album and help it go viral just as fast as the ugly there is always another side to the story!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?id=533625932&aid=289624
i am so sorry you are going threw this.some remarks being made are very cruel and unnessasary .. but that said it is nothing you havent delt with in the past. good luck with everything to come.
your in my thoughts.
Hope you guys pull through this incredible display of stupidity of the masses. This is why "slacktivists" shouldnt be on facebook. YOU DO A GREAT JOB!
My name is Shannyn, and not only have I been to your place, I left with a sense of dismay. I believe that you did start with good intentions, but over time there are more animals at your facility than there is time or money to care for them. I am not against "you" as people, I don't believe you're bad people, I just think you are in over your heads.
The facility itself smelled, there was feces built up in large quantities in most of the cages, and the dishes and cages were dirty. I visited in the fall, so the ground was clear, there was no snow, and most of what I saw was just poorly kept, run-down, or not appropriate, I even saw one of your "staff" a young teenage girl feeding the Lynx a box of "Lunchables". I wouldn't feed that to children or animals, it's not even real food!
I don't believe the photos from Nic were manipulated, my photos showed much the same, and that was 3.5 years ago.
B honest with yourselves, and with the public, there's nothing wrong with saying we had good intentions, but we don't know what we're doing is there? It has to be better than spouting comments about taxidermy and threatening to put the animals to sleep. There are people out there who care, who just want the animals to have a better standard of life, if you truly love them, don't you think that's the best plan for them?
I believe that you will not post this, I don't think you will show a letter from "the other side", but I know you will read it.
Regards,
Shannyn
"I can write until I am blue in the fingers, and defend those photographs or explain the whole story, but it won't convince you, unless you see for yourselves."
You must realize that your explanations carry little weight when you won't take the 2 minutes required to register for a facebook account in order to provide prospective for each photograph in question. Surely you feel it's in your best interest to be honest and up-front about the operation of your business. If the accusations are misplaced, then address them in the open and quash the speculations before they begin.
Keeping an open mind, I would prefer it if you had tried to explain your side of the story before immediately jumping to the conclusion that I, and others like me, wouldn't ever listen to you. Jumping to conclusions like that makes me less inclined to take you seriously.
That being said, I would encourage you to be as honest and open about your operation as you can. Engage those who doubt you and express your side of things.
I'm sure I'm not alone when I tell you that I really, really want to know your side of the story with every one of the posted pictures.
Hope you read this.
How do you explain the exhaustive amount of complaints by visitors and zoocheck? The fact that you were a fur farm before a sanctuary???!! I hope you suffer for what you have done to those animals.
I have a question. On your website, it asks for donations of dog and cat food that your "various animals" eat. Do only dogs and cats eat this food, or do your other animals eat it as well? The wording on the website suggests that other animals are consuming food that was not meant for them. Is this correct? As well, I am curious why domesticated dogs are still allowed to roam about the wild animal cages, when it seems that you have been told previously that this is not OK. Why?
Maybe you should not have opened this zoo if you couldn't do it alone. I know many places rely on volunteer support; however, you also need to be competant in the first place.
lynn ,dont let these negative ppl break you .. anyone can make any situation look bad. i wish you only the best of luck in the times ahead.
Cattle farmers are not animal care professionals, they are agricultural producers.
I understand that pictures can be manipulated. My concern is the reports from zoocheck over the last 6 years and the hundred infractions and recommendation to close the facility.
"We welcome constructive criticism and manual labour. We can't do this alone. "
If you have too many animals to do it alone, couldn't you surrender at least a few of them? Or stop breeding them?
why did you say you would send the animals to a taxidermist?
My family has been going to the Guzoo ever since we were kids and now I bring my own kids there. We always have a great time!
I sorry you guys are going though all this bad publicity.
We look forward to visiting again when the weather warms up,
The Land Family
We Love your facilities. You are in our thoughts.
Keep up the good work, hopefully more people actually do some research and come out and get to know you and the animals before just jumping to conclusions.
I don't understand peoples stupidity, Nic Burgess is trying to get his 15 min of fame. You folks do good work and I can hardly wait to come and visit. Keep your chin up and know you have support....The Morrison family
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