07/02/2026
Please email these people - PLEASE. Letter T Plate done for you here
Email:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing to raise serious concerns regarding the continued treatment of two chimpanzees, Austin and Bossou, held at Dublin Zoo, and to question how such circumstances align with the ethical and educational standards promoted by international zoo and zoo education bodies.
These chimpanzees have been kept in prolonged isolation, out of public view, with well documented concerns around injury, psychological stress, and the absence of a normal social group. Chimpanzees are cognitively complex, socially dependent individuals. Long term confinement of two males in isolation is not a neutral management decision, it is a profound welfare issue.
Of particular concern is the zoo’s continued refusal to allow Austin and Bossou to be transferred to a recognised sanctuary environment, where they could live in larger social groups and experience choice, autonomy, and appropriate lifelong care. Sanctuaries exist precisely for cases where zoos can no longer meet the needs of individual animals. Blocking access to such environments raises serious ethical questions.
Keeping these animals alive is not the same as providing welfare. Survival without social fulfilment, stimulation, or agency is not an acceptable outcome for a species whose psychological needs are so clearly established in the scientific literature.
As organisations that claim an educational and conservation mandate, it is deeply troubling if international zoo education frameworks continue to legitimise situations where:
highly intelligent animals are kept in enforced isolation
injuries and welfare decline are managed behind closed doors
sanctuary options are dismissed in favour of institutional control
I am asking plainly:
How does the prolonged isolation of Austin and Bossou serve animal welfare?
How does denying them sanctuary placement align with modern ethical standards?
And how can such cases be reconciled with claims that zoos represent best practice in animal care and education?
If zoo education is to retain credibility, it must be willing to confront cases where institutions fail individual animals, not defend them by default.
I expect a clear response outlining your position on this matter.
Sincerely,
Bossou is one of the Chimps locked away in the Old Gorilla House at Dublin Zoo, with little or no exercise opportunities.
In September 2022, he was reported as being " Obese; bigger abdomen that starts to extend outside of body frame, pectoral fat, flabby /fat upper arms, plump skin around ischial callosities." This would be a body condition score of 8/10.
Recommendations were made which would increase both enrichment and exercise. The advice was not implemented.
Obtaining any update on Bossou's body condition has required a lot of hard work and persistence and unfortunately the news is extremely worrying.
A weight of 84kg was recorded in April and May of last year. Bossou is now Morbidly Obese.
Shame on Dublin Zoo😥
Euthanasia would be more humane 😪
