A chara, - Dublin Zoo may be baffled as to the cause of the death of ten penguins, but anybody who visited on Monday, July 28th won't be.
I went to see the penguin enclosure on that day with my niece and nephew and we were disappointed that it was being painted and there was no sign of the penguins. Half-an-hour later we returned to the nearby seal pool for feeding time. To our horror the penguins were back in the enclosure, the smell of the drying paint strong and unpleasant. Whether or not the paint was the cause of death, it surely indicates gross disregard for animal health to release them into an enclosure so soon after painting and before the walls were washed down.
Dublin Zoo has obviously not learned anything from the reprimands and reports of recent years. It was my first visit for 15 years, having stayed away because of the critical reports. I had heard that things had improved a lot but, frankly, after what we witnessed, I wouldn't trust Dublin Zoo to mind my dog, much less endangered species. - Le meas,
Anne McCluskey,
Villiers Road, Dublin 6.