The safety watchdog has given another warning to Orana Wildlife Park, ordering it to improve, among other things, protection for its zookeepers working with dangerous animals.
It comes after a 1News investigation into the Christchurch zoo in July, where 20 current and former zoo workers came forward, revealing animal deaths and welfare concerns, and describing feeling exhausted, ignored and unsafe.
WorkSafe said it has now found the park had “ineffective risk management” for some of its tasks, including “worker safety while feeding lions”.
Watch an extended interview with Orana Wildlife Park’s board co-chairperson on TVNZ+
The notice was initially issued in August with a variation made in late September, and has only become public now because it was leaked to 1News.
The public are not at risk, but WorkSafe has asked for improvements in several areas to protect workers. It said Orana was also failing to clean animal excrement from enclosures and has issues with manual handling of heavy items like feed.
“Although safeguards existed, more need to be put in place,” the agency said in a statement.
However Orana is pushing back — defending its record, and refusing to accept that its process for feeding the lions is unsafe.
Orana board co-chairperson Ken Hughey said the zoo had hired an external consultant to look at its health and safety.
“We have a good system in place and we believe that system is protecting the staff,” he said.
Asked whether WorkSafe had got its assessment right or wrong, he wouldn’t answer either way.
“WorkSafe are not on the ground in the facility at the time when we’re doing that sort of work.”
A previous WorkSafe complaint about vehicles at the zoo has since been resolved. Photos leaked to 1News in July showed trucks used by staff in very poor condition, including one with a large crack across the windscreen.
Whistleblowers had warned that the vehicles were “very scary” and said they were scared that someone might die.
This week, Hughey said Orana had since “modernised” its fleet and changed some vehicles.
“We’re making sure they’re all mechanically up to speed,” he said.
External agency probes Orana’s culture
Beyond safety, Orana has also brought in an external company called Culture by Design to look at its culture, after whistleblowers described feeling ignored by management.
The zoo has been run by one chief executive — Lynn Anderson — for nearly 30 years.
Asked if he supported Anderson, Hughey said the board had supported her in that role and would continue to do so — “unless any new information is made available to us and if that new information is made available to us we’ll discuss it in light of the context and we’ll consider a way forward”.
New information could include material shared by Culture by Design or by the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA), which started investigating Orana after the 1News series, he said.
When asked if Anderson was a good manager, Hughey characterised the question as “really unfair”.
“I’ve only been co-chair for about a week. I’ve only been at the park for less than a year and I think it’s quite early in the piece for me to judge,” he said.
“What I can say is she has a really extremely positive history with the park.”
Hughey said he was interested in the results of the ZAA investigation and the board was “always monitoring what’s happening in terms of management”.
“When that information becomes available to us — positive, negative, in the middle, areas for improvement, considerable areas for concern, we will take all of those on board and act accordingly,” he said.
In a statement this afternoon, the ZAA said its investigation was “progressing well” and it was finalising the details of its review.
The Ministry for Primary Industries is also due to return a report around animal welfare issues soon.
It has already carried out a “rapid assessment” at the zoo, which found no significant animal welfare concerns — other than an underweight tiger — but has significantly increased its audits due to the reporting.
Orana has until November 29 to comply with the current improvement notice. WorkSafe said it will require proof of improvements by then, and may revisit the park if necessary.