Your article (Conflict between activists and zoos shows little sign of going away, 17 October) says “Activists … point out that zoos abduct animals from their natural habitats”. This is certainly not the case for animals at London and Whipsnade zoos, which come from globally important breeding programmes, customs confiscations, or the like.
The article also reports Peta’s claim that work by zoos on conservation is a “con”. ZSL, which runs the zoos at London and Whipsnade, is first and foremost a conservation charity, and our zoos are a key part of that work. ZSL’s zoos hold 15 species that are extinct in the wild (more than any other zoos in the world). These species simply would not exist any more were it not for collaborative breeding programmes. We work with 105 threatened species at London Zoo, and 84 at Whipsnade Zoo – 38 of which are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN red list. We are world leaders on reintroducing animals safely to the wild, from the design of release programmes to providing detailed health screening and post-release monitoring.
