Protesters target 'Mickey Mouse' zoo

Disney puts on a lavish show to unveil its latest theme park

Animal rights protesters are planning to demonstrate at the opening of Disney's $800m Animal World theme park.

They say zoos are a concept whose time has passed. They are protesting against the deaths of 12 animals in unrelated incidents before the park's opening on Wednesday.

Endangered black rhino: swallowed a stick

The deaths include two rhinos. One was an endangered black rhino which swallowed a 45cm stick and suffered a fatal infection.

Only around 2,500 black rhinos are believed to still exist in the wild.

A pair of rare West African crowned cranes were run over by a tour bus. Four cheetahs and two otters were also among the casualties.

Around 1,000 animals remain in the 500 acre park, all of them born in captivity.

Crowned cranes: run over by a tour bus

The chairman of Disney, Michael Eisner, told BBC News that only a tiny proportion of the animals had died.

"The population in the wild that dies in a year is anwhere between 30, 40 and 90%," he said.

"The animals that die in a zoo are 12-15 percent - an unbelievably low amount."

The Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission is carrying out an investigation of the park for the US Department of Agriculture.

Four cheetahs died of kidney failure

A spokesman for the commission backed up Mr Eisner's assertions, saying, "it is not abnormal for a zoo of this size to have a few die for various reasons."

The park was inspected five times by officials in February and it passed US regulations on the quality of the cages, veterinary care, sanitation and feeding.

But Joe Taksel of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida is not impressed.

"To breed an animal or to capture an animal and confine that animal for the rest of its life to be a zoo attraction I think is a concept whose time has passed."