Exploris crocodile plan is backed by councillor

Exploris crocodile plan is backed by councillor

13 July 2016

A PORTAFERRY councillor has poured cold water on a row over a crocodile featuring at the new Exploris aquarium.

Animal rights activists accused Ards Council this week of breaching its own rules on using animals for entertainment by planning to use the 1.5 metre long crocodile as part of Exploris’s tropical reptile area. They argue the crocodile is being forced to live in an “unnatural environment”.

However, councillor Joe Boyle said “no-one in Portaferry is jumping up and down about it” as far as he was concerned and that the focus was on making Exploris a major tourist attraction. 

Ards Council and new Exploris operator CRG have also denied any breach, pointing out that the crocodile was not born in the wild.

CRG took over the operation of Exploris from the council earlier this year following a funding crisis and the newly refurbished state-of-the-art facility is to open to the public next month.

Animal rights group Northern Ireland Says No To Animal Cruelty (NISNTAC) claims Ards and North Down Council had done a U-turn after agreeing last year to prohibit animals being used for entertainment purposes on its land.

Although the policy was aimed at circuses, NISNTAC said taking the huge reptile out of its natural surroundings to live in a tank “goes against the five freedoms of the Animal Welfare Act 2006”.

“We see this from the perspective that the council policies on animal welfare are confusing and inconsistent,” said Daniel Barclay, one of the founders of NISNTAC.

“The same council banned the use of animals on council property from being used to make profit or for entertainment purposes but by buying a crocodile for these purposes they seem to have gone against that.

“We are completely against any animal being taken from its natural habitat and being placed in an unnatural environment which in this case is a different climate altogether.

“It goes against two of the five freedoms which say that an animal must have the freedom to exhibit its natural behaviours and the freedom to live in it’s natural surroundings.

“How is it supposed to do either living in a tank in Portaferry?”

Councillor Boyle said the focus was on Exploris being a “major drive and attraction to the area”.

He said: “Are people in Portaferry jumping up and down about it? No. 

Is anybody else outside Portaferry jumping up and down about it? No. 

Except maybe people who don’t like to see anything out of their natural habitat.”

Councillor Boyle said he wasn’t at the recent Ards and North Down council meeting in which the issue was discussed but was happy to put his faith in the local authority on this occasion and in the operators of Exploris.

“I believe the council has taken good advice,” he said. “The operators themselves are also very professional.”

Owners CRG, behind the hugely successful Crumlin Road Gaol visitor attraction in Belfast, said the crocodile was to be a special educational attraction alongside other reptiles which the facility will re-home from rescue centres.

Kevin Flannery, Marine Biologist and director of Exploris, said: “Exploris is a centre dedicated to educating people about the well-being of animals from our seas and about reptiles.

“Our ongoing work with rescued animals makes Exploris aquarium the only seal hospital in the whole of Ireland.

“The welfare of the animals in our care is of primary concern.

“We believe that by enabling people to see, experience and learn about them in a managed way we can promote greater understanding of marine and tropical environments and support the better conservation of the animals in the longer term.” 

A spokesman for Ards and North Down Borough Council said: “These reptiles were born in captivity. They are moving to a facility that is fully equipped, licensed and inspected to house them so we believe the move will improve their quality of life.

“The move will be managed by animal welfare experts to ensure minimum distress to the animals and in compliance with Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs regulations.

“The reptiles and tropical fish, like the native fish that currently reside in Exploris, will be used as a learning tool to educate visitors and communicate the conservation message associated with each individual animal.”