{"id":14266,"date":"2025-01-26T22:47:20","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T22:47:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/01\/26\/port-moody-ban-on-mobile-petting-zoos-meets-mixed-reaction-bc\/"},"modified":"2025-01-26T22:47:20","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T22:47:20","slug":"port-moody-ban-on-mobile-petting-zoos-meets-mixed-reaction-bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/torontotribune.ca\/index.php\/2025\/01\/26\/port-moody-ban-on-mobile-petting-zoos-meets-mixed-reaction-bc\/","title":{"rendered":"Port Moody ban on mobile petting zoos meets mixed reaction – BC"},"content":{"rendered":"


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A move by city council in\u00a0Port Moody, B.C., to ban mobile live animal programs and petting zoos<\/a> is being met with mixed reactions.<\/p>\n

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On Tuesday, council tasked city staff to develop a policy banning these programs from operating on public or private property in the city.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a really novel decision. Port Moody is the first municipality to pass a vote like this,\u201d said Nadia Xenakis, a wild animal specialist with BC SPCA.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The events) are usually targeted towards children and families where there are live animals present; often they\u2019re exotic animals, wild animals from another country that are brought into Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The proposed policy is also winning approval from Vancouver Humane Society.<\/p>\n

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The society says live demonstrations present a risk to the animals\u2019 physical and psychological well-being as well as the health and safety of the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s incredibly hard to provide the five freedoms of animal welfare to wild animals in captivity, just generally, across the board, and then at these events, specifically, there\u2019s risk to their physical safety,\u201d\u00a0 Xenakis said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey can be crawling on the floor. They can be mishandled. They\u2019re not usually provided breaks when interacting with the public\u2026 Environments are very loud \u2013 very noisy; they\u2019re very crowded. We don\u2019t know what the kind of transportation conditions were to these events.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to the BC SPCA, research indicates there is \u201clittle positive educational value\u201d associated with these programs.<\/p>\n

Not everyone agrees, however.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI am very disappointed with the whole situation. Banning education, to me, is just wrong,\u201d said Mike Hopcraft, owner of Wild Education BC, a reptile-focused rescue centre that also offers mobile presentations and in-house tours.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not out there exploiting animals. We\u2019re not breeding and selling animals as they think we\u2019re doing. We are out there teaching people about the animals so that we hopefully don\u2019t get as many resources in. That\u2019s our big thing, education, and they want to stop that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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