Dramatic response to calls to do away with Helsinki Zoo baboons

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According to General Curator Leif Blomqvist of the Helsinki Zoo, all baboons on the Korkeasaari Island will be humanely put down around the turn of this month. The reason for this is the forthcoming repair work in the baboon enclosure, the former Lion Castle, which is listed as a protected building. Apparently, it is not possible to find any alternative enclosure for the baboons, and no other zoo has volunteered to take the animals. The decision has resulted in a vigorous public response.
      Blomqvist, who is the head of animal maintenance at the Helsinki Zoo, says that it is not possible to do the repair work in the former Lion Castle while the baboons are in the enclosure. The animals need a warm shelter in the winter, and on the other hand, they are dangerous and cannot be kept in the same premises as the repair personnel.
     
Basic upgrading work is an on-going process in the over 100-year-old Zoo, and the City of Helsinki has budgeted an annual sum of EUR 1.2 million for the repairs of the Zoo in the upcoming years. Blomqvist estimates that the repair expenses of the Lion Castle will amount to over EUR 1 million. The work is to be started in 2006 at the earliest.
      The next target for repair work is the bison pen in 2005, and currently, construction work on a new info centre at the end of the Mustikkamaa Bridge is about to be started. The centre will be completed in 2005.
      A total of seven buildings on the Korkeasaari Island are protected. Some of the old enclosures for animals have been made into museums, but the old Lion and Bear Castles are still in use.
     
There has been an unexpectedly vigorous public response to the announcement that the baboons will be put down. The decision has been regarded as ethically wrong and even commercially absurd, as the baboons are claimed to be the most popular attraction in the entire Zoo. Last Saturday a large number of upset people came to say goodbye to the baboons on the island, just in case.
      An advertising agency in Helsinki has launched a campaign to save the baboons. They are employing a project manager whose task would be to plan a successful rescue operation that would also be financially feasible. The company took out a full-page advertisement in Sunday's paper. A petition is already up and running on the Internet.


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