{"id":166981,"date":"2025-11-07T00:39:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/166981\/"},"modified":"2025-11-07T00:39:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T00:39:07","slug":"dublin-zoo-strongly-rejects-tds-claims-of-animal-mistreatment-sexual-harassment-of-staff-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/166981\/","title":{"rendered":"Dublin Zoo strongly rejects TD\u2019s claims of animal mistreatment, sexual harassment of staff \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allegations of mistreatment of animals, sexual harassment of workers and financial irregularities at Dublin Zoo<\/a> made in the D\u00e1il by People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy<\/a> have been \u201cvehemently\u201d rejected by the zoo authorities.<\/p>\n

Mr Murphy introduced an Emergency Inspection of Dublin Zoo Bill to highlight \u201ca range of very serious issues\u201d at the attraction and he called for an \u201centirely new system of independent oversight\u201d.<\/p>\n

His allegations included \u201cvery serious animal welfare issues culminating in the deaths of numerous animals and the disappearance of whole species from the zoo\u201d. <\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThere are credible allegations of harassment, including sexual harassment of workers by managers and financial irregularities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dublin Zoo, however, said it \u201cvehemently disputes the allegations made today in the D\u00e1il and objects, in the strongest possible terms, to the manner in which these claims have been raised without any prior engagement with the zoo\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dublin South-West TD alleged a female staff member repeatedly complained about being harassed by a male manager, \u201cwho was eventually suspended for four months\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn another incident,\u201d he told the D\u00e1il, \u201cthree female members of staff were sexually harassed by a male manager at a conference. A subsequent HR investigation confirmed three instances of harassment. He is still a senior manager at the zoo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlighting animal welfare issues, Mr Murphy said workers at the zoo \u201care outraged at the neglect and mistreatment of animals\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mr Murphy had highlighted \u201cthe death of all African wild dogs\u201d, an endangered species about which concerns were raised three years ago by the National Parks & Wildlife Service<\/a>. He said one dog had been left with untreated cancer. \u201cThat species is now gone from the zoo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said a pregnant cheetah was moved from Cork\u2019s Fota Wildlife Park to Dublin Zoo at Halloween. \u201cShe gave birth the next day and all the baby cubs are now dead. She should never have been moved when pregnant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other animal deaths have included four bongo antelopes and a blackbuck \u201cwhose leg was snapped in half and left hanging on by a ligament after being inappropriately transported in a horsebox\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also highlighted the drugging of a family of elephants that had been separated. Two died from stress and the rest \u201cdeveloped herpes, reactivated by stress\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Zoo said in a statement: \u201cThe assertions are either wholly misleading, completely false or contain inaccurate and unsubstantiated clinical assessments.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the past three years, more than 50 similar anonymous allegations have been made. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll have been fully investigated through independent reviews carried out by the relevant authorities and found to be either unfounded or historic and already resolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dublin Zoo said it \u201cstrongly refutes the animal welfare allegations\u201d. The \u201cwelfare of our animals is our highest priority, and we are widely recognised for the quality of our care\u201d. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allegations of mistreatment of animals, sexual harassment of workers and financial irregularities at Dublin Zoo made in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":166982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[9,10,96008,18,13,14,6,19,17,11,12,15,16,31340,5,27172,27171,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-166981","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-dublin-zoo","11":"tag-eire","12":"tag-featured-news","13":"tag-featurednews","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-latest-news","18":"tag-latestnews","19":"tag-main-news","20":"tag-mainnews","21":"tag-national-parks-and-wildlife-service","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-paul-murphy","24":"tag-people-before-profit-solidarity-pbps","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115505631431314511","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}