More than a dozen people gathered in front of the entrance of Bowmanville Zoo to protest allegations of animal abuse on Monday.
Zoo owner Michael Hackenburger is under fire after PETA released a video last week allegedly showing him mistreating a tiger during a training session.
“It’s shameful and embarrassing when you can do things like this to an animal regardless if it’s a zoo animal, a dog or cat,” said Ontario Captive Animal Watch president Carly Ferguson.
“The only reason he’s whipping is to instill fear in the animal so the animal will comply with his circus act.”
In the video, Hackenberger shouts profanities at the tiger as he is repeatedly seen swinging a whip toward the animal.
The Ontario SPCA says it’s looking into allegations and will interview all those involved in the situation.
READ MORE: Ontario zoo owner denies PETA allegations he abused tiger
Hackenberger released a video of his own denying any wrongdoing but admitted he struck the animal twice and that most of his swings fell near the animal.
“I got him twice, but after that, every whip of the whip you see, I do not strike the animal,” Hackenburger said.
A neighbour who has been living in a home located near the zoo for 26 years said the allegations of abuse are false.
“As for them saying that he was whipping the tiger, that’s bloody ridiculous because you can see when he showed it, he goes like that but he doesn’t touch the tiger. We’ve seen it. We’ve been over there,” said Margaret Calder.
Zoocheck Canada campaign director Julie Woodyer said the only reason the threat of physical violence against animals work is because it is afraid that some pain will come.
“So at some point in that animal’s life they have experienced some element of pain, that’s how fear based training works,” said Woodyer.
“It’s no different than if I held a gun to your head. I wouldn’t need to pull that trigger to get you to do what I want. You have the fear of the weapon and that’s exactly what goes on here.”
This is not the first time Hackenberger has come under fire for aggressive actions toward his animals.
On Aug. 28th, he was a guest on City-TVs morning show Breakfast Television when he was caught swearing at a baboon which jumped from a pony it was riding.
With a report from Kevin Nielson
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