All 22 'Experience Zoos' Investigated Found Violating Regulations

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Some zoos allow visitors to touch and feed animals directly. However, this is only permitted for zoos that submit a preliminary plan and receive approval. When 22 such experience zoos were selected and investigated, violations were uncovered at every single one of them.

Reporter Jang Seon-i has the details.

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A zoo in Gyeonggi Province.

Visitors are feeding coatis, animals belonging to the raccoon family, through holes drilled into the enclosure wall.

The feeding items are usually carrots or hardtack biscuits, and because there are no zookeepers present, visitors can give them an unlimited amount.

This easily leads to nutritional imbalance and obesity.

[Lee Hyung-ju / Representative, Animal Welfare Institute Aware: Even if they claim to limit the amount of feed sold, it is fundamentally impossible to control or manage the total amount of food an animal consumes throughout the day. Because numerous visitors pay money to buy and feed the food....]

Animal feeding experiences at zoos were prohibited in principle when related laws were amended in 2022.

Only experiential programs approved through advance plans are exceptionally allowed.

However, these zoos received approval on the condition that they would limit the amount of food, yet they are failing to follow their own plans.

When an animal welfare civic group investigated 22 zoos across the country, it was revealed that all of them were operating experience programs different from their submitted plans.

A zoo in Incheon stated that touching animals was prohibited while feeding them, but it has been running a kinkajou-touching experience.

At the same zoo, revisited recently, newly opened feeding experiences for capybaras and sloths—neither of which were approved—were found.

At a zoo in Daegu, an unauthorized seal-touching experience was underway.

[Just pet them gently. (They are very smooth. The texture on the hands is also very nice.)]

This is a commercial tactic to lure even one more visitor, while local governments maintain that on-site crackdowns are not easy.

[Daegu City Official: Even if a complaint comes in, it is not easy without evidence. They (the civic group) sent us photos. We checked based on that.]

[Park Hae-cheol / Member of the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee (Democratic Party): Submitting an educational implementation plan only when first receiving approval and being effectively neglected thereafter is the fundamental cause of problems like the ones we see today.]

Just as interacting with animals is valuable, teaching children to consider the health and welfare of animals also seems important.

(Video Reported by Kang Dong-chul | Video Edited by Lim Yeojin)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.