Parting with the peacocks: Saskatoon zoo moves birds for ethical reasons

SASKATOON – There are no more peacocks at Saskatoon’s Forestry Farm Park and Zoo following a decision to move them somewhere better equipped to house them year-round.

Manager Tim Sinclair-Smith says it was an ethical decision based on what happens when the birds aren’t allowed outside.

Sinclair-Smith says the peacocks roamed around in the summer, but were locked in cages for up to seven months in the winter.

He says the zoo would have had to spend $500,000 to build a winter facility.

Officials chose instead to move the birds in the early spring to facilities with better housing such as zoos in Calgary and Toronto.

Sinclair-Smith says it was felt the money could be better spent improving the zoo’s habitats for endangered species.

(CKOM)