The BC SPCA is accusing Aldergrove’s Greater Vancouver Zoo of not cooperating with the agency’s investigation into the death of a giraffe.

SPCA spokesperson Lori Chortyk said that the zoo had been cooperating, up until Wednesday. The SPCA is seeking some information, both about Jafari, the 12-year-old giraffe which died Sunday morning.

Investigators are seeking information about both Jafari and about the care of the remaining giraffe at the zoo, said Chortyk.

“They’re not being entirely cooperative,” she said.

This may result in legal action, possibly including a warrant, to get the information the SPCA wants, Chortyk said.

“We certainly will get it, we’ll get it and we’ll get to the bottom of what happened to the giraffe,” she said.

Zoo spokesperson Jody Henderson said the zoo was doing what it could.

“I think we are cooperating,” she said Wednesday.

The zoo has already handed over preliminary results from the necropsy, she noted.

Henderson said the SPCA might have a different definition of “cooperation.”

Chortyk admitted that the SPCA is opposed in general to keeping wild animals in captivity.

However, she said that the agency doesn’t lay charges without evidence. The information they’re seeking would form a part of their conclusions.

Chortyk would not say exactly what the SPCA is seeking for fear of jeopardizing the investigation.

Jafari had arrived at the Greater Vancouver Zoo in 2001 at the age of six months, from the Granby Zoo in Quebec.

He had lived with a number of other giraffes over the years, mostly with Eleah, an older female giraffe who died at age 23 last year.

Amryn, Jafari and Eleah’s three-year-old offspring died a week before Eleah’s death.

Eleah was thought to be in good health but was getting old for a giraffe.

The only remaining giraffe at the zoo arrived in July from Ontario, and was intended as a companion for Jafari.

The Vancouver Humane Society has been highly critical of the zoo over the deaths of the giraffes in recent years.