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Speaker 1: The review Until OR on a Wildlife Park and Christ

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Speaker 1: that has come out today and the zoo is having

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Speaker 1: to make a couple of changes. It was commissioned after

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Speaker 1: a string of complaints you remember this former staff had

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Speaker 1: regarding animal death and animal welfare. The report doesn't raise

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Speaker 1: any immediate concerns over the animals, but the zoo's been

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Speaker 1: told to strengthen its processes and not to take on

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Speaker 1: any new animals for at least the next six months.

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Speaker 1: Professor Ken Huey as co chair of the OR on

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Speaker 1: a Wildlife Trust Board, and he's with me this evening,

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Speaker 1: good evening, good evening. Why don't you release the full

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Speaker 1: reports here?

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Speaker 2: So we've released the recommendations, the full set of recommendations

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Speaker 2: in the animal welfare and asset management space. We haven't

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Speaker 2: in terms of the culture space because all of the

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Speaker 2: analysis was undertaken after a full set of interviews and

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Speaker 2: surveys with all of our staff, and we had guaranteed

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Speaker 2: them anonymity, and that's really important for us. However, we're

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Speaker 2: really clear on what we have to do in the

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Speaker 2: culture space, and now we're all so clear in the

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Speaker 2: other spaces.

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Speaker 1: What happened with the deaths the gorilla infection. What happened

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Speaker 1: with that?

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Speaker 2: So in terms of all of those animals, we've had

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Speaker 2: a report from MPI, and that report shows there is

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Speaker 2: nothing that the park could have done to prevent those deaths. Naturally,

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Speaker 2: animals do die, and in terms of some of those animals,

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Speaker 2: or at least one of them, the disease that it

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Speaker 2: contracted was so rare it had never been before reported.

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Speaker 3: So these sort of things do happen to animals.

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Speaker 2: We do have veterinary services on tap, and we're seeking

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Speaker 2: to strengthen those services going forward.

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Speaker 1: And the giraffe disticated its neck.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So accidents also happen irrespective of the best laid

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Speaker 2: plans of mice and men, and where there is a

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Speaker 2: need for corrective actions and those actions are taken. But

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Speaker 2: again that was no fault of our own. Incidents like

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Speaker 2: this do a care.

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Speaker 1: And what about the otter that was trapped in the

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Speaker 1: pul suction pipe.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so again, accidents happen.

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Speaker 2: What we have done is we've learned from all of

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Speaker 2: these incidents and so of others, and we've put in

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Speaker 2: place corrective actions. So the ottter is a really good example.

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Speaker 2: We're put in place of structure, and that structure hopefully

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Speaker 2: will prevent a similar incident from occurring. But fair enough,

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Speaker 2: you can never guarantee absolute certainly, I.

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Speaker 1: Don't think anyone would expect that. But one of the

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Speaker 1: issues the staff had is that you were covering these up.

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Speaker 1: When how long between deaths and public being informed about

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Speaker 1: what really happened?

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Speaker 2: Okay, so we inform ourn MPI anytime there is an incident.

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Speaker 2: We do that on a regular basis, much more often

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Speaker 2: than annually, so the Ministry for Primary Industries is well

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Speaker 2: aware of this. We inform the public as necessary. So

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Speaker 2: just recently we fully informed the public around six deaths

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Speaker 2: of animals that have occurred at the park. They were

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Speaker 2: all deaths that were natural, so we're being really transparent

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Speaker 2: about this and Australia. So they occurred over a ten

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Speaker 2: year period, not over a one year.

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Speaker 1: Period, right, But how long between when the deaths occurred

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Speaker 1: and when you actually told the public that.

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Speaker 3: Well, it depends on what the deaths are.

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Speaker 2: We're not going to tell the public, for example, the

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Speaker 2: death of every single We've got over a thousand animals

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Speaker 2: at the park, so naturally a substantial number do die

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Speaker 2: each year, so we're not going to tell the public

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Speaker 2: about every single death. What we will do, though, is

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Speaker 2: tell the public when there is a significant death, and

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Speaker 2: we do that.

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Speaker 1: Okay, do you think some of your staff will perhaps

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Speaker 1: being a bit sensitive.

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Speaker 2: No, I don't. I'm really empathetic with the staff in

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Speaker 2: this case. I love these animals, i love nature conservation,

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Speaker 2: and I'm really concerned when an animal dies if there

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Speaker 2: is a preventative action that we could have taken. So

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Speaker 2: it's really important to have staff and we do have

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Speaker 2: them that are absolutely committed to the park. Every single

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Speaker 2: staff member is. So if they've got concerns, naturally we

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Speaker 2: want those concerns raised. What we really want to do

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Speaker 2: as we move into our future focus is seven place

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Speaker 2: systems that the staff are really confident in, that they

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Speaker 2: trust that they can upwardly report those and they know

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Speaker 2: they're going to see appropriate action.

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Speaker 1: All Right, we'll leave it. There are no more animals

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Speaker 1: at least for the next six months anyway, or on

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Speaker 1: a wildlife part that's Professor Ken Huey or on a

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Speaker 1: Wildlife Trust board coach. Here with me for more from

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Speaker 1: Heather Duplessy Allen Drive listen live to news talks. It'd

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