The BHA has written again to North Somerset Council about displays at Noah’s Ark Farm Zoo, near Bristol, which the BHA believes are incompatible with legal obligations on zoos to display accurate information about the animals they keep. Last month the BHA wrote to the council to this effect.

The council has replied stating that its inspectors do not feel able to take any action over the zoo’s creationist and pseudoscientific ideas because they ‘do not feel able to curb what could be seen as the proprietor’s freedom of expression’.

North Somerset Council monitors and issues the zoo with its license, and when its inspectors offer a recommendation on whether to grant a zoo licence they are required to take account of the ‘Standards of Modern Zoo Practice’ under the amended Zoo Licensing Act 1981. This includes the requirement that ’accurate information about the species exhibited [in zoos] must be available’ (Section 7.13).

Andrew Copson, BHA Director of Education and Public Affairs, said ‘This is not a freedom of speech or freedom of religion issue. The question is whether the information displayed by this zoo meets the tests of accuracy and truth that it should meet. We contend that currently it does not.’

Notes

For comment or information, contact Andrew Copson on 07534 248 596.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) is the national charity representing the interests of the large and growing population of ethically concerned non-religious people living in the UK. It exists to support and represent such people, who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs