Zoo group wants animal reality show switched off
Print Edition
China’s first animal reality show has sparked debate over whether appearing on television puts zoo animals in distress.
“Wonderful Friends,” which features movie stars and pop singers taking on the responsibilities of animal keepers and vets at a zoo has become one of the most viewed shows in China.
However, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, an international organization with 300 zoos and aquariums from 50 countries, yesterday urged it be taken off the air. It said the program, filmed at a zoo in Guangzhou, capital of south China’s Guangdong Province, places animals in “distressful and harmful situations, in order to create ‘entertaining’ story lines.”
Six stars, including Li Yuchun, ambassador of WWF’s worldwide movement Earth Hour for the China region, took part in five weeks of filming at the zoo. They acted as keepers under the guidance of professionals to take care of more than 20 animals, including koalas, chimpanzees, elephants, white whales, giraffes and giant pandas.
The association said the show dressed up chimpanzees and orangutans in human clothes and marketed them as “cute pets.”
Yan Dianya, the show’s director, said the goal was to help establish emotional interaction between humans and animals.
“The program calls for public attention to animal loving and protection, and it is our responsibility to also address debates on animal issues,” she said.
She welcomed animal organizations to get in touch with the show’s crew on how to better protect the animals. “However, as a TV program, the crew has neither violated any animal protection laws and regulations, nor done harm to the animals,” she said.
Chen Shuqing, a veteran keeper who is a professional consultant to the program, said the crew set up cameras in the zoo to get animals familiar with the monitors months before the program began filming. The animals were not frightened at any point during the filming, Chen said.
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