Rescue Chins being bred by Petting Zoo

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Tagna

Chin lover
Joined
Jan 29, 2009
Messages
899
Location
Mississauga, ON Canada
I was as at event this weekend and was approached by someone who had 5 chins in a cage and was getting more shipped in from Calgary Zoo. They want to have all 7 in a cage together. Males and females. There was the original 2 and the rest are the offspring.

They have males and females together and their current chins were "rescues" and the chins in Calgary were "dumped" on them.

I emailed the zoo and they feel it was a misunderstanding. The person who runs the petting zoo was clear about adding new bloodlines to their chins. The zoo doesn't seem to care.

Maybe if these were endangered chins it would be different but they are rescues.

The petting zoo says that they are a shelter. I say they are not much better than backyard breeders.
 
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Well, you won't have to worry about them for long. They will end up killing each other. Then you can take pictures and send them to the zoo. Sounds callous, but we all know it's going to happen.
 
The petting zoo emailed me. They stressed to me that they are not breeding......but they have all the chins housed together. Apparently if you don't decide to breed, the chins won't. In my mind, males + females = breeding.

Tunes, I agree and I told him what would happen. I don't think they care.
 
Reading this post, as well as the post on the Canadian Chinchilla Rescue FB page, then doing a little research, I'm not convince these people know what they are doing. It's the same petting zoo that a few years ago didn't know tarantulas shed hairs (which cause stinging pain) as a defense and caused a toddler to need on going medical treatment after getting hairs in his eye. Also looking up the website of them the chins don't even look great, they look like they need a bath and grooming. The comment on their site about the chins saying they "strongly suspect one of the chins is female" after she had a kit, WTH?! do they think males can have kits?

Sounds to me like just another one of those wild life traveling petting zoos that are just in it for the money. They learn enough to get the proper permits and pass safety standards to get accredited as a zoo, housing male and female animals together isn't breaking any laws. For example, a 8 cubic foot size cage is the legal minimum limit per chin, so they could technically have the chins all together and so long as they have 8 cubic feet per chin get approved as a good habitat. The animals make them money so it only makes sense to make more animals to make more money. They honestly can say they aren't breeding, the chins are doing it all by themselves, lol.

On a side note, I don't know the petting zoo, I have never been there or see any of their animal shows. I could be way off on my assumption that I come to from what I find online.
 
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