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Speaker 1: The name you trust to get the answers you need.

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Speaker 1: Heather Dup to ce Alan drive with one New Zealand

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Speaker 1: let's get connected a news talk as they'd be.

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Speaker 2: Nineteen nineteer is the text number and obviously standard text

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Speaker 2: fees apply. Now on another subject, a former volunteer at

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Speaker 2: Arana Wildlife Park has come forward to add to the

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Speaker 2: raft of allegations against the zoo. Serena Smith to Or

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Speaker 2: talked to us at newstalksz BE taught us that some

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Speaker 2: animal injuries didn't receive proper care because of understaffing while

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Speaker 2: she was a volunteer at Arana between twenty nine and

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Speaker 2: twenty fourteen.

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Speaker 1: There's a bit of a complex with the rhinos and

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Speaker 1: there's injuries I think to one of the males that

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Speaker 1: got shoft aside by management. Yeah, it's terrible.

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Speaker 2: Animal welfare staff from the Ministry of Primary Industries have

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Speaker 2: been at Arana today to do a rapid assessment of

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Speaker 2: conditions at the zoo. Gary Orr is the MPI Director

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Speaker 2: of Investigations and Compliance, supporting with us. Now, hey Gary,

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Speaker 2: wit here, what are you looking at?

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Speaker 3: So we're going to be looking at every animal in

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Speaker 3: the zoom with the assistance of a qualified vent and

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Speaker 3: we'll be making an assessment of the welfare of the animals.

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Speaker 2: Okay, And because obviously you're just going to look at

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Speaker 2: one single point in time, right So if you look

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Speaker 2: at them right now and you find there's nothing to

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Speaker 2: worry about, is that it case closed?

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Speaker 3: Oh? No, it's not, because obviously we've had these historic

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Speaker 3: issues raised with us, and you know, the all animal

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Speaker 3: deaths or injuries are required to be documented by the operator,

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Speaker 3: and the records are reviewed during our MPO audits. But

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Speaker 3: we would expect the operators to notify us proactively if

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Speaker 3: there are any serious animal welfare issues, and the matters

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Speaker 3: that had been raised have not previously come to our

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Speaker 3: attention from the zoo, which ones in relation to the giraffes,

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Speaker 3: the gorilla and the auto that were raised in the

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Speaker 3: television story.

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Speaker 2: But what is it about the gorilla. The story about

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Speaker 2: the gorilla is the gorilla dies and at this point

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Speaker 2: has only been given some really basic medicines like pamel

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Speaker 2: and stuff, right, and is diagnosed as having a viral

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Speaker 2: infection and then eventually dies. What's the allegation there.

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Speaker 3: Well, what's the problem. It would appear that the allegation

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Speaker 3: is that treatment wasn't appropriate and timely. But we have

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Speaker 3: spoken with the vet that provided care and advice throughout

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Speaker 3: the illness and we're satisfied. You know, we're not the

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Speaker 3: experts and the health of animals, and we rely on

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Speaker 3: technical advice from vets where the experts and investigating matters.

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Speaker 3: But not having that technical medical advice.

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Speaker 2: Okay, sorry, okay, So part from the gorilla, what else

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Speaker 2: didn't you.

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Speaker 3: Know about the otta drowning in the pond and the

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Speaker 3: giraffe getting its neck court in the cage and suffering

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Speaker 3: a serious injury to the need.

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Speaker 2: Would you have expected to have been told about these things?

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Speaker 3: Yes, we would, and you know we would expect to

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Speaker 3: see those matters documented in their records and raised with us.

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Speaker 3: It's for us our priorities the welfare of the animals,

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Speaker 3: and we want to make sure they're well and healthy,

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Speaker 3: and we investigate all the animal welfare issues that are

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Speaker 3: raised with us. We've had five since twenty and sixteen

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Speaker 3: that are being resolved. The important thing, though, is that

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Speaker 3: all these allegations coming to light. Now, nobody's ever approached

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Speaker 3: us with these apart from a couple of anonymous letters

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Speaker 3: over the years, and anonymous letters are very very difficult

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Speaker 3: because we need to go back to complainants or performance

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Speaker 3: and ask for more detail and that sort of thing.

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Speaker 3: So we'd sort of encourage people to contact us to

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Speaker 3: do if they want to be confidential their details to

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Speaker 3: keep confidential. We can do that. We're very good at

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Speaker 3: doing that and we do it all the time. But

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Speaker 3: we can operate it without information.

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Speaker 2: Now, Gary, when I watched the one New story last night,

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Speaker 2: I thought, all of this stuff is explainable, right, none

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Speaker 2: of it was. It didn't feel to me like there

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Speaker 2: was a smoking gun that absolutely showed that a runa

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Speaker 2: had necessarily done anything wrong at this stage, sort of

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Speaker 2: you finding this information. But what the thing that concerned

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Speaker 2: me was the lack of transparency. And you say that

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Speaker 2: you would have expected to be told about this stuff?

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Speaker 2: Is that Are they legally obligated to tell you?

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Speaker 3: Well, as I say, they're required to record all of

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Speaker 3: these incidents, and I recorded the part which verifies when

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Speaker 3: going alongside to do an order. Are then able to

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Speaker 3: examine that record and then they can ask appropriate.

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Speaker 2: Have you seen the record? Is the stuff in the record?

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Speaker 3: Hi? I haven't. And there'll be one of the things

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Speaker 3: that we'll be looking.

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Speaker 2: At okay and when are we going to hear from

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Speaker 2: you guys again.

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Speaker 3: Well, we expect our assessment to take a couple of days.

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Speaker 3: That underga, we're looking every animal in the park and

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Speaker 3: there are a lot of them, so there's a few

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Speaker 3: bit of work involved.

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Speaker 2: All right, Gary, beast of luck and thank you for

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Speaker 2: your time. Mate, appreciated this, Gary or who is the

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Speaker 2: MPI Director of Investigations and Compliance Support. For more from

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Speaker 2: Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to news talks.

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Speaker 3: It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast

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Speaker 3: on iHeartRadio