Tallinn zoo staff seek director’s removal over animal welfare plans

Six department heads at Tallinn Zoo have asked the city to replace director Kaupo Heinma, whose plans to reduce the animal collection and consider euthanasia for animals with severe psychological problems have angered staff, ERR reports.

Heinma, who has led the zoo for nearly three years, said he had made a serious mistake by failing to explain how his view of the institution had changed. He once thought a zoo’s value lay in having a larger and more diverse collection of animals and species, he said.

After consulting an animal welfare specialist, Heinma concluded that many animals may be suffering in cramped conditions. He is seeking a new home for Lielu, a seal in her twenties who would need a much larger pool to live a full life as a seal.

Zoo collection manager Hendrik Kuusk agreed that the current conditions for seals are not ideal and said Lielu should leave her pool. But keepers fear that, at her age, she may not adapt to another zoo. They believe she may be better off alone in a small pool than among unfamiliar animals.

Heinma said prolonged boredom could harm an animal’s mental health. If an animal appeared psychologically broken, he said, the zoo should consider ending its suffering. Kuusk said the word euthanasia sounded harsh, adding that no one was proposing euthanising a healthy animal.

Heinma said the most difficult decisions should be made by an ethics committee that includes outside experts, rather than by one person. He said the number of animals at the zoo would have to fall in some way.

Chimpanzees, elephants and hippopotamuses are likely to remain in Tallinn for the rest of their lives, Heinma said. In future, the zoo should focus on animals that can live comfortably in Estonia’s climate year-round. He also said a European zoo association expects changes and that Tallinn could lose its place among leading zoos if they are not made.

Former zoo director Tiit Maran, whom staff have approached for help, said employees did not understand Heinma’s vision for the zoo. He said decisions to stop bringing in animals or to euthanise them sometimes had to be made, but that the zoo needed a clearer direction.

Deputy Mayor Kristjan Järvani said animal welfare was the city’s priority. The city’s Environment and Public Utilities Department is due to present its analysis in two weeks.