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Posts Tagged ‘Elephants’

On Tuesday, the Topeka City Council voted to continue keeping ailing elephants Sunda and Tembo in their inadequate exhibit at the Topeka Zoo. A special work session to discuss retiring the elephants to a sanctuary had been scheduled to follow the meeting, but political forces opposed to making a decision before a new zoo director is hired were able to present a motion calling for an immediate vote.

Contributing to their efforts was Sedgwick County Zoo (Kansas) director Mark Reed, who showed the AZA’s true colors when it comes to the welfare of animals and protecting the trade association’s sovereignty over zoos and their elephants. (Reed is also a past-chair of the National Elephant Center, a breeding and temporary holding facility to be built in Florida. Think he’s mad that the St. Lucie County Commission said they can’t use bullhooks there? – Reed’s own zoo does.) During a 20-minute red-faced rant, he bullied, threatened and lied to the city council, saying that moving Tembo and Sunda to a sanctuary would “destroy the zoo.” What he meant was that AZA would take down the zoo and make an example of it for any other zoo that wants to do the right thing for its elephants. Despite the fact that no zoo that has sent an elephant to a sanctuary has ever lost its accreditation, he threatened the council with that action, ominously adding that, without AZA accreditation, no more animals would ever come to the zoo. But his most unconscionable threat was directed at the Topeka Zoo’s gorilla, Tiffany, who was left alone after her cage-mate, M’Bili died last year from an aortic aneurysm, at least according to disgraced former Topeka Zoo director Mike Coker. Reed warned the council that the zoo would never be able to bring in another gorilla as a companion for Tiffany and that she would “die alone.”

We already know that the AZA would rather see an animal suffer in substandard conditions than appear to capitulate to those who truly have the animals’ best interests at heart. But to make such a heinous and cruel threat about Tiffany, with obvious relish, is a new low even for AZA. Apparently, AZA and Reed have no qualms about condemning a highly intelligent and social animal to solitary confinement for the rest of her life, in order to punish a zoo that would want to do right by their own elephants.

But there’s more skullduggery. City Manager Norton Bonaparte had invited captive wildlife consultant and veterinarian Dr. Mel Richardson, who has worked with elephants for more than 30 years, to examine and assess Tembo and Sunda. When Dr. Richardson visited the zoo, he was met by a group he assumed were all employed at the Topeka Zoo. Only at the council meeting was it revealed, by Reed, that two members of the group came from the Sedgwick County Zoo – a veterinarian and curator – though they never identified themselves as such to Dr. Richardson. This type of behavior is underhanded, unethical and unprofessional, especially on the part of veterinarian Bill Bryant.

Predictably, Reed reported that his vet was of the opinion that Tembo and Sunda are fine. This is what every zoo says about its ailing elephants, up until the time they can no longer stand on their painfully diseased feet and joints and then die. His report directly contradicted information in the Topeka Zoo medical records and Dr. Richardson’s assessment. In fact, both Tembo and Sunda suffer foot disorders, especially Sunda, who has chronic foot disease involving all four feet, information delivered by Dr. Richardson in his presentation to city council.

Also invited to speak was Carol Buckley, co-founder of The Elephant Sanctuary, who addressed concerns about whether Tembo and Sunda are truly bonded and answered questions relating to the welfare and behavior of animals that have been sent to the sanctuary. Though Tembo, an African elephant, and Sunda, an Asian, have lived together for many years, the Topeka Zoo records reveal a history of aggression between the two elephants that has sometimes resulted in injuries. According to Buckley, bonded elephants at the sanctuary never harm one another.

Representing IDA was elephant campaign director Catherine Doyle who encouraged the city council to listen to facts and not emotional appeals. She urged the council to help the zoo make a fresh start with a focus on animal welfare. While making it clear that IDA was there to help provide information so the city could make an informed decision, she encouraged sending the elephants to a sanctuary.

IDA does not consider the campaign for Tembo and Sunda to be over – far from it. We will continue to fight for these elephants, and all elephants living in unnatural and inadequate conditions, and will keep you informed of anything you can do to help them.

On March 13, 2010, delegates from 175 countries will take part in the 15^th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Amongst dozens of proposals concerning imperiled species worldwide, they’ll be considering dangerous petitions from Tanzania and Zambia to sell more than one hundred thousand kilograms of elephant ivory and to decrease protections for elephants in those countries. Such “one-off” sales in the past have been disastrous for elephants and led to widespread poaching across Africa. Please read our action alert and send a letter today to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, your senators and representative, urging them to ensure the U.S. votes “no” on these lethal proposals.

When Punxsutawney Phil crawls out of his burrow, what he finds may determine whether elephants living in cold-climate zoos will suffer another six weeks of miserable confinement. IDA today released an unprecedented survey showing that scores of elephants are warehoused throughout the long winter months in cruel conditions, many of them hidden from the public.

Elephants living in cold climates will be confined indoors for the vast majority of each day during the winter, left to in small concrete cages where they lack the space they need for healthy movement. Cold weather dramatically increases the suffering that elephants already endure in zoos, where they are dying prematurely from conditions caused by their inadequate environment.

IDA’s survey found that of 75 Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited zoos holding elephants in the U.S. and Canada:

31 out of 75 (41 percent) zoos holding elephants are situated in cities that experience long, frigid winters.

3 out of 4 of zoos holding elephants in cold climates have average mean temperatures below freezing for two to five consecutive months.

Approximately 40 percent of all elephants in AZA zoos will be confined indoors for much of the winter.

To learn more about IDA’s findings and how intensive confinement, especially during cold weather, negatively affects elephants, please read our press release and survey report.

San Rafael, Calif. – In Defense of Animals (IDA), joined by a top authority on elephant behavior and biology, today strongly criticized the St. Louis Zoo for recklessly breeding elephants. The charge follows an announcement by the zoo that the elephant Rani is again pregnant, despite serious complications following the last two births at the zoo and the threat posed by a deadly elephant virus.

For full press release, click here.

Watoto at the Woodland Park Zoo waiting to get out.

IDA just released its 2009 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants, which exposes the hidden suffering of elephants in zoos. In its sixth year, the list highlights how confinement of these giants to tiny enclosures wreaks havoc on their physical and psychological health and leads to premature death for many. For the first time, the list includes a Canadian entry, the Toronto Zoo.

We’ve already been inundated with calls from the media from cities across North America including Honolulu, Toledo, Houston, Chicago (Brookfield Zoo) and Toronto, helping to bring attention to the plight of elephants suffering in zoos.

See the full list of zoos, plus two new inductees into the Worst Zoos for Elephants Hall of Shame, by clicking here.

Nine elephants who survived the grim and punishing assaults of being forcibly captured from the wild and then endured the harrowing training methods for elephant back safaris at a Zimbabwe ranch—with its sickening smell of human injustice, along with chains, severe deprivation, and torturous taming methods—were rescued in an elation-bringing moment by the Zimbabwe National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty Against Animals (ZNSPCA) and have now been released into Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe. Fully recovered from injuries incurred during the breaking and training process, radio collars for tracking reveals the elephants are now forming new bonds as a herd, and socializing well with one another in the intricately unified and sophisticated world of elephant social groups.

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