The title says it all. Good facts and good background on why Elephants do not belong in zoos and why zoos are nothing more than money making businesses only.
Article:
What is good for zoos is not necessarily good for elephants
http://www.azstarnet.com/allheadlines/115297
Jim Kiser
Do elephants belong in zoos? Closer to home, do elephants belong in
death 18 days ago of Toni the elephant at
by the Bronx Zoo's announcement last week that it will phase out its
elephant exhibit, after more than 100 years of displaying the popular
animals.
The issue has some urgency in
new $8.5 million elephant enclosure at Reid Park Zoo, but work has not yet
started on the expansion.
City staff members are drafting recommendations for the improvements and
for raising the money, at least part of which will come from donations.
They are expected to report to the council in April.
If elephants don't belong in zoos
and some zoo directors believe they do not, as does the Humane Society of
the
then there is still time for
elephants before the money is raised and spent.
Her trunk for a crutch
Toni the elephant was 40 years old
about 20 years less than she could have been expected to live
when National Zoo officials decided Jan. 25 to euthanize her. She
suffered from severe arthritis, and despite being administered elephantine
doses of ibuprofen, she had lost hundreds of pounds and suffered from
shrinking muscles, the Washington Post reported.
Ironically, Toni's death came just one week after zoo officials had said
euthanasia wouldn't be necessary. But zookeepers changed their minds after
Toni began "trying to take the weight off her front legs by leaning on her
trunk, by rocking back on her hind legs and by sitting down," according to
the newspaper.
Toni's health problems were not unique. In the wild, elephants will roam
as many as 50 miles a day. In a zoo, the lack of opportunity to walk and
get sufficient exercise, plus being confined to areas with hard surfaces,
causes many elephants to suffer severe foot problems and arthritis. At
their most extreme, these problems lead to premature deaths.
Moreover, elephants are intelligent, social animals, which prefer to live
in matriarchal herds of at least a half-dozen. Consequently, zoo life,
without sufficient contact with several other elephants, can result in
stereotypical weaving, pacing and head bobbing
all signs of stress or boredom. In the Oakland Zoo, before making
significant changes in their elephant management, officials observed one
elephant engaging in such abnormal behaviors for five hours each day.
It was elephants' complex social patterns, in fact, that prompted the
Bronx Zoo's decision not to replace its three female elephants when they
die. Tuss, the zoo's matriarch elephant, died in 2002, and the three
remaining elephants still have not figured out a new social arrangement,
according to news stories.
Research also has shown that elephants have shorter lives in zoos than in
the wild. That contrasts sharply with the experience of most other
species, which live considerably longer in zoos because of the regular
source of food, medical care and lack of predators.
"Extremist" zoo critics
Because of such acute problems, some experts have concluded elephants
don't belong in zoos. Of course, this has ignited a debate that, at times,
is heated.
Leaders of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, as well as some
animal-rights "extremists." But that is neither accurate nor fair.
The "extremists" include such people as Ron Kagan, the director of the
Detroit Zoo, who last year voluntarily gave up his two elephants, Wanda
and Winky, out of concern for their welfare. He sent them to a sanctuary
near
well in captivity," Kagan told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Another "extremist" is David Hancocks, former director of the
year that "the history of elephants in zoos is full of mental and physical
pain."
A third "extremist" is the Humane Society of the
think that elephants can be kept humanely in zoos," Richard Farinato, a
Humane Society executive, bluntly told a
And now that list of "extremists" includes the Bronx Zoo, which eventually
will divert the $58,000 it spends annually on each elephant to conserving
elephants in the wild.
In its defense, the zoo association's strong reaction to the critics is
understandable: It is difficult to accept criticism when you are trying to
do your best.
Yet there is an even more important issue underlying the debate. If the
public decides that it is not good for elephants to be kept in zoos, how
long will it be before the public decides that it is harmful also to keep
other animals in zoos?
When the City Council decided in June to expand the elephant exhibit at
Reid Park Zoo, it had just two choices: Either provide better facilities
for its two elephants, Connie and
from the American Zoo Association, or send the elephants elsewhere.
breeding age, and she is unrelated to any other zoo elephant, which
prevents inbreeding problems. The zoo association has recommended she have
at least two babies.
That recommendation carries extra weight because elephants are an
endangered species in zoos, as well as in the wild. Elephants will not
exist in zoos in as little as 30 years if more are not bred, according to
documents provided to me by Fred Gray, director of Tucson Parks and
Recreation Department, which oversees the Reid Park Zoo.
that could house up to six elephants. If
years, zoos have done poorly at breeding elephants.
Organized opposition to the council's decision has arisen from a group
that named itself "Save Tucson Elephants." Nikia Fico, a UA law student,
told me members of her group go to the zoo every week and have collected
more than 4,000 signatures to present to the City Council.
Fico's group wants the city to transfer the elephants to the Elephant
Sanctuary in
specializes in providing a healthy environment for elephants to live the
remainder of their lives without the stresses and ailments that come from
being exhibited in zoos or worked in circuses.
Carol Buckley, the sanctuary's executive director, offered in June to
accept both elephants, at no cost to the city. She told me Feb. 1 that the
offer is still open.
However, city officials say they will not accept the offer but instead
will keep the elephants.
Popular people magnets
Elephants are hugely popular with the public, especially schoolchildren.
When the Nashville Zoo opened a new elephant exhibit last year, monthly
attendance shot up by 15,000. That means additional revenue and greater
levels of public support.
In
director Gray told the City Council in June.
Indeed, the public response to elephants in the
eclipsed any reaction to the garbage fees or anything else," Andrew
Greenhill, chief of staff to Mayor Bob Walkup, told me. Greenhill said the
mayor supports expanding the zoo, adding, "The community has made it very
clear they want the elephants here."
Moreover, were the city to give up its elephants, it would move them to
another zoo, not the sanctuary, both Gray and Assistant City Manager Liz
Miller told me. One reason: The American Zoo Association has threatened to
withdraw the accreditation of other zoos considering sending their
elephants to a sanctuary. The Detroit Zoo encountered months of conflict
with the association over its decision to send its elephants to a
sanctuary.
As part of its arguments, the city staff produced a document disputing
that sanctuaries are better for elephants. But Hancocks, former director
of the
Times commentary: "The quality of life at the
abundance of love the elephants receive, and the joy they experience are
beyond anything I have seen at any zoo. It seems an obvious choice."
It is relevant, too, that the Pittsburgh Zoo has joined with the
Conservation Fund in purchasing a 724-acre ranch for animal conservation
and breeding. Its first phase will focus on elephants. And at the National
Zoo, where Toni recently died, officials hope to replace the elephant
house at the main park location and to add a 100-acre or 200-acre elephant
facility at the zoo's research center.
Those efforts seem to acknowledge that any zoo planning to breed and
exhibit elephants needs to think in terms of hundreds of acres, not just a
few.
Indeed, the Elephant Sanctuary's Buckley told me that
expansion would still be inadequate. "Seven acres are no better than 1
acre. No better for the elephant," she said.
The Elephant Sanctuary started with 100 acres but doubled its size when
officials noticed elephants were not recovering from health problems as
well as expected. Even so, with 200 acres to roam in, Buckley said, "The
elephants laughed at us. They said, 'For us, we're still living in a
closet.' " Consequently, officials expanded the sanctuary to 2,700 acres.
Move
Should the council decide to move
sanctuary,
But it is time for Tucsonans to face the issue: It is unlikely that the
city can provide appropriately for its elephants, even with an expanded
exhibit, and even if the city were to spend millions more than the $8.5
million already tentatively planned.
I am convinced
needs, and focus on providing better facilities and care for its other zoo
animals.
I am convinced, too, that the City Council made its decision without
engaging the public in a needed discussion about the appropriateness of
keeping elephants
and about the degree of commitment that keeping elephants demands from a
community.
If that public discussion ever is held, Tucsonans likely will come to
recognize that what is good for zoos is not necessarily good for
elephants.
A key expression of a parent's love for a child is, at the appropriate
time, to let it go. The same may be true of a community's love for an
elephant.
Editorial columnist Jim Kiser appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
Contact him at jkiser@azstarnet.com or 807-8012.
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