AT MINISTER'S REQUEST

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 85, 9 April 1936, Page 12

AT MINISTER'S REQUEST

MAY LIVE FOR MANY YEARS

"The Post" has received a number of letters from correspondents protesting against placing the Dunedin sea lion in the Wellington Zoo, and supporting the protest made by the president of the Humanitarian and Anti-Vivisection Society. The correspondents urge that it is cruel to confine the sea lion in the Zoo, and plead that it Should be liberated at sea. The Town Clerk of Wellington (Mr. E P. Norman) under whose charge the Zoo is, when asked today how the sea lion came into the possession of the Wellington City Council, said that it had been approached by the Marine Department to take it. The Minister of Marine, the Hon. P. Fraser, informed Mr. Norman that Dunedin children were thrusting at the sea lion with sticks, and had injured, its eye, and asked if it would be of any use to the Wellington Zoo. The Minister, said Mr. Norman, had been asked to destroy it, as it would not keep away from Dunedin. An attempt had been made to place the animal on another part of the coast, but it had come back as soon as it was released. The Minister was informed that Wellington Zoo would take it. It would arrive tomorrow, and would no doubt be inspected at the Zoo by many people during the Easter holidays. The pond, which was a large one, with more dry area surrounding it than many such ponds in other zoos, was ready for it. Water is changed in this pond whenever necessary. The number of sea lions accommodated in ponds in other zoos no bigger than that at the Wellington Zoo was much greater, said Mr. Norman. There .was evidence that these animals thrive in captivity, because one had lived at the Newtown Zoo for seven years, and another for fifteen years, while.the last two sea lions at Newtown had inhabited the pond for nearly fourteen years. Healthy sea lions lived for many years in captivity. There were trained seals that went on tour with their proprietors and seemed to thrive on it. It was true that two seals had died in the Zoo in a comparatively short time, but both were sick when.they were taken in. One of these was found in the Hutt Kiver estuary, and the other at Evans Bay. In future no sick seals would be taken for the Zoo. Healthy seals which had lived so satisfactorily at the Zoo would not be likely to sur-j vive for the same period in the sea, Mr. Norman thought.