Louisa Ponnampalam says...

It is very interesting to read that the wildlife department did not think that the state of the animals at Animal Island was deplorable.

My biggest regret yet is that I didn't bring along a camera on that day I went to the exhibit to "investigate".

I wonder if there was a way to demand that they show us the "valid permit" that the organisers of the show supposedly had?

Not only were most reptiles in small, filthy aquarium boxes, HUGE monitor lizards were in cages not big enough for them to turn around properly. Monkeys were chained to steel bars (the pig-tailed macaque in the cage looked absolutely withdrawn and suicidal).

Pythons the width of car tyres were in tubs, and there was wrong labeling and spelling of the animal species (with mostly wrong information too), while frogs, birds and monitor lizards had no labels.

I do believe that there were wildlife species in there that come under the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) Appendix 1 list, which "generally prohibits commercial international trade in specimens of these species".

The brochure of the Animal Island Show did not even have a company name or contact person's name. All it said was "For enquiries, call....(the number)".

So my question is: How does one justify the whole thing? How could the organizers have gotten a 'valid permit'? In my opinion, the exhibition was too exotic to be legal. Where did all that wildlife come from and how did it enter Malaysia?

So if anyone out there comes across a similar exhibition, I urge you to alert the media, an environmental NGO or the RSC.

At the end of the day, there isn't much that can be done if the organisers really have a valid permit and are operating "legally". BUT all that exotic wildlife do not deserve to be kept the way they were/are.

If such shows are meant to expand the knowledge of children, then they should be done the proper way ... not in the manner the Animal Island Show has/is doing.

My 2 cents worth,

Louisa