Wigan Album

We used to go there frequently with our youngest son..I still have a photo of him with the St Bernard dog that belonged there..

No, No, No! That is wrong! No animals should be kept in a cage and used as an exhibition to be stared at for "entertainment". Those poor things have hardly room to move and must be totally miserable and bewildered. Thy should be running wild in their natural habitat but they have no way to get out of that disgusting cage where they are forced to lie. At least in a Safari Park they can run about. As The Carpenters so truly sang, "Bless the beasts and the children, for in this world they have no voice; they have no choice."

I couldn’t agree more Irene … no animal should be caged . Your comments mirror my sentiments more or less precisely .
Unfortunately Irene , although public awareness for the well-being of wildlife on this godforsaken planet may well be on the increase … and despite the irrefutable fact that certain zoos and wildlife parks care for their charges impeccably , I still fail to understand why any species of what essentially are wild creatures , whether it be elephant , rhino, kangaroo , hedgehog or whatever , should be paraded for financial gain in what for them is an alien environment .
How can this possibly be justified ?
And as much as I’m convinced that establishments such as Chester , Chessington , Woburn , Longleat etc.,
…. and there must be scores of other similar sites in this country that are no doubt caring for creatures whose continued lineage may well be threatened , I can’t help thinking that the very threat of their extinction could possibly originate from the fact that parading exotic creatures as a source of income could well be a partial root of the problem .

Over the years , I’ve occasionally found myself in the company of people who kill animals by various means , as a pastime … or more often they would prefer to describe their activities as sport …
Individuals whose company I would otherwise find
agreeable . Individuals who would argue that their despicable actions actually benefit the creatures that they are happily slaughtering and cite some kind of twisted logic that I have yet to decipher .

On a local level , and I have to be very careful here …

Quite close to my domicile , we have a green keeper who frequently lays poisoned bait in order to kill foxes, and over the past couple of years , it would appear that he’s had a certain amount of success .
Fortunately I don’t actually possess a 12 bore shotgun , otherwise this bar steward could quite well be discovered on the compost heap by a dog walker in the early hours along with the numerous foxes that he’s illegally dispatched and I’d be doing bird in Strangeways .

I doubt that it will ever come to this , as I possess neither the instrument of retribution, nor the bottle to perform the necessary act , but circumstances do change … so who can say ?

Unfortunately , this post may ultimately prove to be my undoing .

I totally agree,and said as much to one of the employees which didn't go down well,the only reason we went there is because my son fell in love with the St Bernard dog that belonged to one of the keepers..I think his name was Shnorbich..(I'm sure that isn't the correct spelling).
Anyone that knows me knows my love for animals has more or less taken over my life..I watch all wild life programmes but as soon as the killing starts my TV goes off..there is no need to show an animal in pain,we all know what's going to happen...plus closing down the Zoo at Blackpool was the best thing the authorities ever did..I watch a poor Hyena do nothing only pace up and down it's cage..I'll never forget that poor animal..never.

I have a friend who we've both known for quite awhile now,he used to be known as 'Owd Dave'.he calls every week just to see my little Chihuahua..and likewise mt little dog loves him,however when he called the other day he told me that he was talking to a man with a lovely black dog and Dave being Dave always carries dog biscuits in his pocket. he offered one to the dog,its owner said he doesn't like people, he explained that whoever owned him before beat him on his head that much that his eyeball was knocked out..I cannot comprehend anyone,who could do that ..I know I would be in trouble if I could arrange some kind of retribution on the thug that did this..the scumbag.

i agree with everyones comments on animal cruelty.haigh hall zoo was shocking,and i think it got closed down by public opinion.as for laying poison down i think it is legal.fox hunting should be completely banned including trial hunting.also this gov should be banned.hope they get there arses kicked at the next election.

What calibre of folk want to kill foxes or any animal, I could honestly hurt them and not feel any remorse..I have never wanted to eat any animal..and never will.

Get rid of all the zoo's and ban humans from keeping birds in cages and ban humans from keeping dogs and cats as pets.

I too am not one for keeping any animal in a cage and would rather see them in their natural surroundings, I couldn't understand why Gerald Durrell a so called animal lover did as he did when building up his zoo, it was in one of his books that I read about when he went to countries he would pay the locals for any young animal, no matter how they got them, and more often than not it meant killing the mother of the animal who I'd imagine would have fought tooth and nail to protect her youngster, he wanted young animals so to be able to smuggle them out of the country in his pockets.

With my job at the council I would often go to the zoo and can assure everyone that the care and respect of all the animals by the staff there was, in my opinion anyway exemplary. The least sign of illness or something not being right with any animal then they would inform Bill McNish and later David Gilmore, the vets did visit the zoo for an animal check on a regular basis anyway.

I was horrified by what I heard about Steve a keeper, he had looked after the Camels daily cleaning out their enclosure, putting down fresh bedding and feeding them since when they had arrived when young, anyway this particular day he got badly bitten by one of the Camels and was hospitalised/operated on and off work for quite a long time with a crushed shoulder. It was later found that the Camels were rutting and that's why the male had suddenly attacked, anyhow the management wanted them destroyed, but Steve begged them them not too. With new safety regulations about to come in for zoos with dangerous animals licences, I'd heard that the costs of upgrading the enclosures needed by the zoo to meet these regulations along with the vet fees would have been astronomical, so with the council cost cutting I suppose a decision to close it and find new homes for the animals would have been made.

Ozy, the greenkeepers time will come, you'll know the adage 'what goes round comes around,' don't do violence as then you'd risk being seen as the aggressor, if as you say there is proof of him doing this with foxes then report him to the RSPCA on 0300 1234 999 and they'll investigate and hopefully take him to face a court.

I can't understand why some folk are like what they are toward foxes and other animals, these animals do have to eat to survive and if some folks are disposing of food on a verge or pavement they will come and eat it, its the folks doing that what are at fault not them. This foodstuff isn't suitable for animals either with it being full of salt or sugar, but they'd eat it anyway with being hungry.

Cyril , I’m torn between relating what I know , and saying nothing , as I don’t possess forensic evidence to substantiate my statement .

But the first thing that sparked my interest was when a reliable source initially informed me that the person in question had been bragging to him about the number of foxes that he’d poisoned and I believe the tally was in double digits, but as I wasn’t personally present at the time of the conversation I’m unable to vouch for the authenticity of that figure , although I’m confident that my informant would be prepared to back that statement up .

Another thing I know is that uncooked links of sausages and the occasional raw , skinned rabbit carcass have been found within yards of the bloke’s place of work . These things I have seen with my own eyes . And on these occasions , there were other witnesses to substantiate this .

The third thing is the fact that on one occasion I personally overheard a conversation between him and a third party and the bloke was discussing how he had the equipment , the ability and the inclination to shoot the foxes .
And I’d be prepared to repeat these statements under oath if necessary .

The fourth thing I know is that over the past 3 or 4 years , all the foxes seem to have disappeared from the area in question , and finally I do know that it
IS illegal to poison foxes although they CAN legally be shot providing certain conditions laid down in law are adhered to .
Don’t just take my word for it , there’s lots of information out there on government websites .
And while you’re looking it up , you may also discover that it’s illegal to discharge a firearm in an urban environment .
So whatever his chosen method is to dispatch the unfortunate foxes , it would appear his actions are being executed illegally , so I’ll keep hold of the phone number you posted Cyril … just in case eh ?Thanks for that .

He wouldn't be bothered if he poisoned a neighbours much loved dog or cat would he, or if they got injured in one of his snares, I do know the type - the man is a turd. Our cat when young had to be taken to the vet after he returned home with an injured leg, he'd been missing for some hours, the vet agreed that it looked like an injury from him being in a snare and it cost us over a hundred quid to have his leg operated on and patched up. There was someone further down who were the only ones around that I knew were keeping chickens at the time and I suspected he could have been snared there, but couldn't prove it, it's well known that there are as many cat haters around as there are fox haters.

I've seen what poison does to a cat,my daughters cat ate some and I have never seen a little cat in that much pain..her little body was twisted,it was terrible..the poor little thing had to be put go sleep of course to put her out of her misery..anyone who can do these things to defenceless animals can also be very dangerous around people.

I went a few times when the children were young and saw one bloke tormenting a monkey with a biro pen,the monkey snatched the pen and started to bite it and had ink over its face and mouth.The bloke thought it was hilarious and I had a right ding dong with him.I think a few zoos still do some good with conservation and research but many are cruel places with little respect for animal welfare,especially in other countries.

No one knows how or when human life first evolved on this planet , but our civilisation is nothing more than a microscopically thin veneer.

This world’s in a right mess Cyril and no mistake , and it’s probably only the few generations that have witnessed better times who are fully able to appreciate how much of a mess , with the situation seemingly worsening , practically on a daily basis.

It’s a couple of hundred years or so since John Deere developed the steel plough and look how far we’ve come since then , yet a third of the worlds population still go hungry .

What’s going on ?

Perhaps nuclear war could be the answer , what do you reckon ?…
Wipe the lot of us out , tilt the planet a few more degrees off its axis then after the passage of several hundred millennia , a totally new , radioactive resistant life form may have the chance to emerge from the fetid , mosquito infested swamplands of Scholes and flourish .

Good luck to them I say .

They’ll have to struggle to do a better job of buggering this place up than we did anyway .

Lighten up lads , it's like listening to Private Frazer chatting with Hamlet .

Nevertheless…

Following on from my previous post … and given that countless episodes of Blue Peter , featuring Val Singleton demonstrating how to construct a rocket , utilising the most basic of materials , such as old bog rolls and bits of aluminium foil , are available to view on YouTube… I feel prompted to quote Ripley - ( she of ‘Alien’
fame )…

‘’ I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit ‘’ .

End of quote .