Lujan Zoo petition

We, the undersigned, are calling on the relevent authorities to
launch a full investiagtion of Lujan Zoo and to make the treatment and
quality of life for the animals there a top priority, with the
practice of visitors being allowed into cages to pet, ride and be
photographed with the animals ceased immediately.

Lujan Zoo, in
Argentina, controversially allows visitors to enter enclosures and
cages to have their photographs taken cuddling and even sitting on the
backs of some of the most dangerous prediators in the world. The
animals appear to be very sedate and tame, with keepers seen 'playing'
rough and tumble games with them.

Visitors can even hold the
smaller animals and manhandle them, at risk to themsleves and the
creatures. Shockingly, there does not appear to be much by way of
safety regulations to protect either visitors or the animals. Even
children are allowed to enter the lion's cage and fondle a range of
animals that have the potential to maim or kill.

No one wants to
see animals forced to behave in ways which are abnormal and degrading
to them, and no one wants to see Lujan Zoo (or any zoo) putting its
visitors at risk.

The Born Free Foundation is an international animal charity that
has deep concerns, (based on what it has been able to see and read on
Lujan Zoo's website, international press coverage and also members of
the publics internet 'blogs'), that the lives of the zoo's visitors are
at great risk with the zoo encouraging them to have 'close encounters'
with dangerous, potentially lethal, wild animals.

Wild animals,
even in captivity, are dangerous and unpredictable, and there are
tragic accidents happen every year. Even high profile trainers have
been unable to predict how 'trained' animals will behave. In China, in
2008, a young girl was killed by a tiger she was being photographed
with (it is thought the tiger was startled by the camera's flash), and
in 2009 a woman was mauled by a supposedly 'tame' captive tiger in
Thailand.

The physical and psychological suffering of animals in zoos is
not what members of the public want to pay to see or support, and
those visiting zoos need to know their safety, and the safety of their
children, is never at risk.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.