The ministry said in a statement that the Conservation Officer Service has been dispatched and one wolf remains unaccounted for. In an update on its website shared Tuesday afternoon, the zoo — about 55 kilometers east of Vancouver — said it was still working to capture “a small number of remaining wolves,” which the ministry said are in the zoo property but not in their enclosure. . The zoo, which announced the closure on its Instagram and Facebook accounts Tuesday morning, has nine adult wolves and six pups. It is unclear how many wolves had escaped. In a statement posted on its website, the Greater Vancouver Zoo said it had asked police to look into what happened on Tuesday, as the incident was deemed “suspicious and believed to be due to malicious intent.” “Langley RCMP are investigating what appears to be trespassing and vandalism,” the release said. Anyone who sees the wolf is encouraged to keep a safe distance and immediately report the animal to the Report All Poachers and Pollutants (RAPP) line at 1-877-952-7277.
Security issues
The Greater Vancouver Zoo has been the subject of controversy among animal rights activists and has had a number of safety issues in recent years. In August 2019, a young lady was airlifted to hospital after being bitten by a black bear at the zoo. That same year, the advocacy group Zoocheck found that animals at the zoo were suffering from a lack of enrichment. In a report commissioned by the Vancouver Humane Society, the group found that the zoo kept animals in enclosures whose size did not prevent them from engaging in natural behaviors and called for an enrichment program to address the welfare of some captive animals. In December 2021, an employee at the Greater Vancouver Zoo was injured by a jaguar while trying to feed it. (Greater Vancouver Zoo) In 2020, the zoo announced a multimillion-dollar overhaul of the park, which owners say will improve conditions. But the problems continued the next year, when he was an employee injured by jaguar during feeding in December 2021.
