Malacca Zoo has hit the headlines recently because of its secretive plans to import dozens of wild animals from South Africa.

Is it any surprise to you, both the zoo and zoo-friendly Perhilitan have cast a veil of secrecy over the exact number of animals and their arrival date?  If there was nothing sinister or ‘shady’ about the plans, why the secrecy?

It seems Perhilitan have learnt nothing from their past mistakes.

Does this surprise you?

Malaysia already has a surplus of zoos, almost all bad and law-breaking. Countless zoo animals have either died of neglect or been euthanised for being surplus to requirement.

The Malaysian Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria (Mazpa) seems either unwilling or powerless to force its members to comply with the Wildlife Conservation Act. In this it mirrors the lack of action by Perhilitan.   

If both Perhilitan and Mazpa were in the least interested in conservation and bringing Malaysia’s zoos even close to internationally accepted standards of zoo-keeping and animal husbandry, they would both insist on a long-term moratorium on importing wildlife for stuffing into concrete cages and poorly run zoos.    

Far better to improve existing zoos and focus on conserving Malaysian wildlife rather than bring wild-caught animals thousands of miles from Africa. More does not mean better, as we have seen over the years in Malaysian zoos.

Good zoos, nowadays, focus on fewer species, conservation and education, as Mazpa surely know.

Finally, both Mazpa and Perhilitan will have seen the current international, very vocal, outcry over zoos in the UAE and China to import wild-caught baby elephants from Zimbabwe. Do both Malaysian organisations really want to attract the same kind of world-wide negative publicity? Does Malaysia?  

The right thing to do is to ban the import of the South African animals.

But, will Perhilitan, Mazpa and Minister G Palanivel, do what is right for wildlife and Malaysia?

SEAN WHYTE is CEO, Nature Alert.