® strictly personal ¢

7

I TRUST everyone is aware that between them, the Van-
covver Aquarium and the Stanley Park Zoological Society
are trying to trash another 16 acres of Stanley Park.

Back in November, the
aquarium announced a $12 million
expansion, the first phase of which
is supposed to be complete by
1990, some $6 million of which is
for ‘‘renovations,’’ including a
500,000-gallon pool for belugas
and seals. Anything that big is no
renovation, honey. That's expan-
sion!

These characters never give up,
do they?

The aquarium gang also wants
to risk killing another batch of
narwhals, just as they did in 1970,
when six narwhals died within a
few weeks of being transplanted to
the aquarium.

The hidden agenda is to be the
first aquarium to have narwhals in
captivity, but aquarium officials
are quick to deny this ambition.
They would rather quietly carry
through with their plans, pres-
enting the world with another fait
accompli.

That’s been the usual method of
operation at empire-builder Mur-
tay Newman’s aquarium since it
was inaugurated in 1956. Inciden-
tally, the place has expanded six
times since then.

“Moby Doll,"’ the original
whale victim of the aquarium’s
rapaciousness, was only brought to
Vancouver after surviving a har-
poon attack intended to get a
model for a sculpture.

When Skana, a later victim,
died, her body was chopped up
and sold for pet food.

Last May, the Vancouver Parks
Board gave the aquarium permis-
sion to add nearly one acre to its
present site, even though, after the
last expansion in 1984, the board
said definitely no more expansiv<s.
To be allowing any more to go
through at this stage is a breach of
public trust.

Actually, it is a moot point
whether the Vancouver Parks
Board has the right to make such
decisions, anyway. The original
1908 lease of the land from the
federal government contained
Condition 9, which stipulated that
trees in the park cannot be cul
without federal permission.

Malcolm Ashford, chairman of
the parks board, asserts that the
board has total control over
Stanley Park, but there are lawyers
who doubt that.

Moreover, if the feds are indeed
responsible for the park, it is rea-
sonable to expect the pledge of the
new government in Ottawa to app-
ly, requiring eavironmental impact
Statements for every development
it lets g0 ahead. Hm?

Plans for a new ‘‘Up-
per/Lower’’ zoo would quickly
run into a rvadblock if such an in-
quiry were held, since the logic of
destroying precious parkland to
display more caged animals and
birds is compelling nowadays only
to vested interests, and by that I
mean people who stand to make a
profit, one way or another, out of
the traffic in live animals.

As part of their grand scheme,
the Zoological Society would like
to build six different aviaries, rep-
tesenting different ecological zones
throughout the province.

Where would these artificial
zones be created if not out of the
wreckage of parkland that already
provides natural habitat for a wide
variety of birds, from blue herons
to sparrows?

In other words, authentic bird
homes would be ripped apart to
display captive birds in phoney en-
vironments. Wonderful thinking,
parks board! Too bad you can’t be
given pet dinosaurs to match your
dinosaur-era ruminations. Of

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course, the dinosaurs went extinct,
didn’t they?

Part of the Zoological Society’s
scam is to replace the present zoo
animals with all-Canadian wildlife.
Isn’t that patriotic? As for what
would happen to the existing cap-
tives, well, guess!

Some would be slaughtered for
food products and souvenirs,
others would be sent to game ran-
ches to be shot by so-called sports-
men, and some would be handed
over for experiments in research
laboratories.

ttt

Still on the topic of animals, it is
worth noting for the record that an
independent study of the
Kechika-Muskwa wolf control
program by a reputable outside
scientist indicates the animal-lovers
had plenty of reason to be crying
wolf back when the provincial
government was ramming through
its helicopter-gunship eradication
program a few years back.

In a report titled Wildlife
Management in Northern British
Columbia, Dr. Gordon Haber
concludes that the methods used
by the government and by guide
outfitters employing illegal poison-
ing techniques, have probably had
the long-term effect of increasing
the number of wolves, rather than
reducing them.

Gunships and poison only suc-
ceed in fragmenting wolf packs, in
a way that ‘‘invites a rapid influx
of immigrants,’’ Haber notes,
after an exhaustive study of the ef-
fects of the wolf contro! program.

On top of that, he says the cost
of the program may well be greater
than the presumed benefits, since
the forestry boys vastly
overestimated the number of deer,
moose and caribou being born.

Brilliant, eh? ©

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