Shock at aquarium 'bloodbath'
2006-03-20 08:28
Jeffrey's Bay - Internationally acclaimed shark catcher and exporter John Visser is being criticised for the deaths of 27 imported yellow-crested penguins in his shark aquarium at Marina Martinique.
Conservationists were also ready to take him on over the deaths of a large number of sharks in his aquarium.
Trudie Malan of the penguin rehabilitation group Ajubatus informed the International Fund for Animal Welfare about several alleged malpractices.
Malan and other conservationists also wanted the last surviving penguin to be removed.
Two former employees, Terri Dunn and Mirko Barnard, last week made sworn statement about these malpractices at the office of the provincial department of environmental affairs in Jeffrey's Bay.
Shocking allegations about alleged negligence and cruel treatment of the bird before their deaths had moved hardened animal activists and even lawyers to tears.
Tube-feeding denied
Some of the allegations by Dunn, who was taking care of the animals, included that the penguins were forced to swim non-stop for four to five hours. One weakened penguin drowned.
Nearly all the penguins had developed abscesses on their heads. Visser cut these open himself. Sometimes the pus ran out freely but in other instances it had hardened - Visser either squeezed this out or removed it with tweezers.
Sick penguins that were too weak to stand were propped up with towels and stones for the benefit of visitors' exhibitions.
Visser refused to allow Dunn to feed the sick birds through a tube, despite this being a recognised way of nursing them back to health.
Tube-feeding was also denied to a young, sick penguin already bleeding from the anus. Barnard begged Visser to be allowed to treat it but was instead told to put it in a box in the kitchen "where it can be warmed by the sun". The next morning there was a huge pool of blood where the box had stood.
The penguins were medicated randomly and as prescribed by Visser. Chrystal Hartley from the Jeffrey's Bay penguin conservation group said it was essential to give sick penguins the correct doses of antibiotics, as bird malaria posed a huge threat.
These revelations added fuel to the fire of conservationists who were up in arms after Visser had caught and imported 145 yellow-crested penguins on the Tristan de Cunha islands and brought them to Jeffrey's Bay. Most of these were sold for R50 000 and shipped to zoos in Europe and Asia.
Revelations by Barnard, the curator of the sharks, also upset conservationists.
About 20 pajama sharks and a sand shark died in one of the tanks in September 2004. Visser blamed fishermen.
Fifty-one sharks died in one night in October 2004 after the pump in their tank had broken.
The jaws of some of the dead sharks were sawn off as Visser apparently had an order for 40 shark jaws.
Visser wasn't willing to comment on Sunday. He said reporters "twist my words and I don't have time to waste". When asked to react to Dunn and Barnard's statements, he switched off his cellphone.