There will be no permit for the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens to import tiger cubs from an Oregon big cat breeder, at least for now.
There will be no permit for the Panaewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens to import tiger cubs from an Oregon big cat breeder, at least for now.
In a meeting Wednesday in Honolulu, the state Department of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Plants and Animals decided not to forward the county zoo’s request to bring in two Bengal tiger cubs to the Board of Agriculture for its consideration.
“The issue was deferred until the next meeting,” HDOA spokeswoman Janelle Saneishi said Thursday. “There were issues brought up about the adequacy of containment and public safety issues, so they’ve got to come back and provide more information. That will probably be in mid-November.”
Pam Mizuno, the zoo’s director, said Neil Reimer, an ex-officio voting member of the committee and the department’s Plant Industry Division administrator, had questions about the tiger enclosure at the zoo, which has been vacant since Namaste, a male white Bengal tiger and the zoo’s main attraction, was euthanized on Jan. 16, 2014, at age 15.
“It sounded like what he was asking me, he had concerns, not of the tigers getting out, because, basically USDA has approved that part of it,” Mizuno said. “He had concerns the barriers separating the public from the tigers allowed people to climb over and get to the fence. So Ken Redman, who’s a former director of the Honolulu Zoo, explained the barrier is there, but unfortunately, you have some idiot people climb the fence. It happens all the time. So why should we be penalized when it happens at Honolulu Zoo, it happens at all (Association of Zoos & Aquariums accredited) zoos?”
Inga Gibson, state director of the Humane Society of the U.S., which opposes the zoo’s request, said she’s “sure it will come up again.”
“There was a discussion about a number of cases around the world as of late with people falling into tiger enclosures or tigers escaping,” she said. “I had mentioned not only the concern about the tigers getting out or people falling in, but people throwing trash or other items in there, because it’s a relatively open exhibit, and the tigers could ingest items or who knows what people might throw in there.”
Mizuno said the Panaewa facility has never had a tiger escape, although “it happens at AZA facilities; it happened at the Honolulu Zoo.”
The incident she referred to occurred on Feb. 21, 2008, when an 8-year-old Sumatran tiger, Berani, wandered outside the exhibit after an employee left a gate open. He was rounded up quickly without incident or injury. In addition, a 15-year-old male chimpanzee at the Honolulu Zoo escaped his exhibit on June 25, 2014.
He was spotted by a visitor, the zoo was evacuated and the chimp was subdued without incident or injury by a tranquilizer dart about an hour later.
Gibson said there was also discussion about citations of the zoo by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act.
“Ms. Mizuno maintained that they do correct them, but I pointed out that their violations were repeat violations,” she said.
“One was a violation (indoor facilities) that occurred in 2012 and they were cited again for that in 2015.”
Gibson also noted a warning issued in May for failing to build barriers to prevent physical contact by the sloth and brown lemur to the public, as was cited in a routine inspection in January.
Mizuno said HSUS “keeps harping on our USDA citations.”
“In fact, Ken Redman clarified that every facility gets USDA citations,” she said. “We’re in good standing with USDA. We were just issued our permit in September; our permit is good until next September. If we were not in good standing, we would not have been issued that permit. We have had to ask for one extension but that was the whole (primate area) had to be repainted. But we have never not complied within their time limit. We have always made the corrections.”
Mizuno compared USDA inspections to a financial audit and said, “They help us get better.”
Gibson said HSUS will continue to oppose the Panaewa facility acquiring tigers unless it obtains AZA accreditation.
She said accreditation by the Zoological Association of America, which Mizuno said the zoo is pursuing, is “unacceptable, substandard accreditation for backyard breeders and roadside attractions.”
The USDA, said Mizuno, already has approved the zoo “to have tigers and house tigers” and HDOA will decide “whether issuing the permit is going to affect the environment of Hawaii.”
“It’s not their purview to have oversight of the Animal Welfare Act, although that’s what (HSUS) is harping on,” she said.
Added Saneishi, “As far as animal welfare concerns, that’s (up to) USDA.”
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaii tribune-herald.com.