Amsterdam to debate proposal to turn Artis Zoo into public park without animals

Animal party PvdD in Amsterdam is pushing for Artis Zoo to close down, arguing animal welfare concerns and that it is no longer of this time to keep animals in zoos. The Amsterdam City Council will discuss the proposal as soon as it is back from summer recess. Experts think it a good idea to at least consider per species whether it is humane to keep them in zoos.

“Animals are kept there that would normally live in the wild. You can view these special animals up close and study how they behave in captivity. Aerial photographs clearly show it: walled artificial savannahs, rocky landscapes, and other artificial habitats for animals that truly have no business on this continent,” Anke Bakker, the PvdD leader in Amsterdam, argued.

“Other animals, just like humans, deserve the freedom to express their natural behavior: to fully develop their abilities. This calls for a new discussion about the future of Artis.” In her proposal, Bakker asked City Council members to consider what the city will look like in 2050, when the urban population is at 1.1 million, and more green spaces are needed. She wants Artis to be converted into a bustling city park.

“A park where animals are no longer locked up in cages as an exhibition. But where many free-living animals hang out: butterflies, birds, hedgehogs... they can continue all the way from the former flamingo pond to the old gorilla house via the green parkway towards the Oosterpark,” she wrote.

Artis responded earlier this year that it had taken notice of the PvdD proposal to change the zoo into a public city park without animals. “We regret that the PvdD launched this proposal without dialogue with Artis,” the zoo said. According to the zoo, it has worked with the PvdD in recent years and agrees on many topics, including animal welfare “and the pursuit of a liveable world in which we treat all life around us well.”

Artis considers itself indispensable in this time of climate change and biodiversity loss. The zoo is where people come into contact with species threatened with extinction and loss of habitat. “Real contact. Emotional contact. Where we not only get to know the life around us but also come to love it and want to take care of it.”

The zoo pointed out that it enrolls 140,000 pupils and students in education programs per year, is involved in 100 species conservation projects, supports 14 nature conservation projects, and contributes to 25 scientific studies on animal behavior, animal welfare, monitoring of local biodiversity, behavioral ecology, microbiology, and more.

“Artis is part of a large international network of zoos and nature organizations dedicated to preventing the extinction of species and restoring nature. The fact that the PvdD wants to put an end to this ignores the great importance of this role of zoos. As long as we pay too little attention to the life around us, and species are threatened with extinction, a place like Artis is more relevant than ever before.”

Experts think the future role of zoos is a good topic to discuss. “It is good to think about this fundamentally. We will have to do that eventually,” Maarten Reesink, a lecturer in animal studies at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), told the Telegraaf. At least consider the matter per species, he advocates.

“Elephants are such large animals that such a small space really hinders them from exhibiting natural behavior. My estimate is that you should no longer keep them in the long term,” he said as an example. “Some other animals have a fine life in the zoo, perhaps even better than in the wild. Smaller prey animals do not need much space, and there is no danger of predators in Artis. There is not much wrong with that. Corals in the aquarium are also stuck in one place in the wild.”

According to Reesink, zoos are already moving with the times and must continue with that change. “In the long term, they will become much more like a shelter,” he thinks. For example, Artis takes in griffon vultures that cannot survive in the wild, but their young are released into the wild again. “That's where we need to go,” Reesink said.