 Get involved in raising |
Lithuania
Autumn 2003
Poor conditions at Kaunas Zoo
In June the leading national newspaper in Lithuania gave headline coverage to the plight of the animals at the Lithuanian Zoo. The headline read: Lithuanians shock Europeans with tight cages – Kaunas Zoo animals receives attention from influential foreigners – Guests didn’t hide anger.
The article, which took over the whole of the front page and continued onto page two, explained that inspectors from the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) had visited the zoo and were shocked to discover such bad enclosures. The article attracted a massive response from readers and forced the Government to announce an immediate £600,000 grant towards improvements. This is wonderful news! This autumn Naturewatch is accommodating a bear expert who is arriving to assist with the design of a new bear enclosure – so speedy action is underway and we hope that a complete programme of refurbishment will soon be agreed with Lithuanian State officials. However, great mystery surrounds the article – no one appears to know how the journalist knew of the visit and no one is telling!
This is because the journalist used a good amount of “journalistic licence” in her story. This is usually frowned upon but for years the authorities have refused to tackle the poor conditions at the Zoo and if a dramatic story is what it takes to get action – then so be it. EAZA’s official reason for visiting the zoo was to meet the new zoo director Vaclovas Dumcius. He was appointed director just twelve months ago and has on many occasions pleaded with the authorities to take action on the inadequate conditions. Naturally he knew that EAZA would evaluate the zoo’s animal keeping standards during the visit.
EAZA’s policy is to identify the problems and bring about the solutions to the problems – it never criticises the national authorities and it didn’t on this occasion. But that’s not what the papers said – threats of international sanctions – that Lithuania would not be allowed to trade with other zoos – and that Latvia (friendly rivals) had already been informed not to trade with the Lithuanian Zoo! Clearly the journalist wanted to fire up national pride, particularly as the previous weekend was the referendum in Lithuania, where a massive turnout voted 90% yes to joining the EU.
Attracting national pride certainly worked – Lithuanians really do want to be good Europeans and to play a meaningful role in Europe, so to be told of massive inadequacies at the National Zoo really fired everyone up. “Our animals are well-fed, sincerely looked after and live warmly in winter, however their enclosures are scandalously small,” said Mr Dumcius, “the point is, improving the living conditions without the support of the Government is unfeasible as the costs are in the tens of millions.” Finally it seems that the Government has been roused into taking action. EAZA will help and give advice on the design of any new enclosures. In the near future it is hoped that standards will have improved dramatically for all the animals at the Lithuanian National Zoo.
Lithuanian TV tracks down the hunters – almost!
Just ahead of the Parliamentary debate to ban hunting with hounds, Lithuanian TV arrived in London to discover the pros and cons of the issue.
Henry Vaitiekunas, the most famous TV personality in Lithuania, flew in with his team and Naturewatch was delighted to assist by making interview arrangements. As well as his own weekly show, Henry compères the Lithuanian version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire”.
The League against Cruel Sports was the first port of call where Mike Hobday, Head of Public Relations, explained to the viewers back in Lithuania the cruel methods employed by hunts and the political situation, where virtually all Tories support hunting whilst virtually all Labour oppose it. This political divide has always been the same and despite many reports and inquiries into hunting with hounds, there has been no movement of views on either side.
We went onto Westminster to meet with Tony Banks MP, who was, as always, controversial, colourful, charming and charismatic! He has been a leading advocate against all forms of animal abuse for countless years in Parliament. As usual Tony did not hold back any punches when it came to the issue of hunting with hounds. There were also two added bonuses for the Lithuanians. First, rare permission was granted to film the interview in the central lobby of Westminster. And second, Mr Banks surprised everyone by explaining that he knew Lithuania and had spent time there in 1992-3 as he was responsible for a Council of Europe report on Lithuania and was a rapporteur for its application to join the Council. (Lithuania attained full status at the Council of Europe in May 1993.)
Next it was onto the RSPCA where we were to meet the recently-appointed Director General, Ms Jackie Ballard. In 1997 Jackie entered Parliament, having snatched the traditional Tory stronghold of Taunton for the Liberal Democrats. She certainly crammed in a massive amount of duties during her four years as an MP, having served on eight committees as well as being a Liberal Democrat spokesperson on Women’s Issues and Local Government. As if that was not enough, she also became deputy Home Affairs spokesperson. Now having taken over the biggest job in animal welfare, Jackie was not taking any prisoners when it came to hunting with hounds. Henry had some controversial observations and questions on the issue but unsurprisingly Jackie gave elegant and first class responses.
The following day we had lined up an interview with Mr Darren Hughes, the Spokesman for the Countryside Alliance, together with a visit to a hunt kennels and an interview with a Master of Hounds. These arrangements were made a week earlier with the press officer of the Countryside Alliance who had kept in regular contact with us all the way until the day of the interviews. But clearly Mr Hughes and the hunt kennels had no stomach to appear on Lithuanian TV and he consistently failed to return our calls. However, by now Henry was armed with masses of archival video footage and had more than enough material to make his twenty-minute show. So Henry and his team returned home to Lithuania with a true insight into the murky world of hunting with hounds in England where the hunters, as soon as they realised they were the quarry, fled as fast as they could.
