Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants

Today is the day! Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (a NARN campaign) and NARN will share in receiving matching funds in The Seattle Foundation’s give Big Day!

Please donate to NARN TODAY May 15, 2013 to help elephants and other animals in a BIGGER way!

Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants is working to secure the release of Bamboo, Chai and Watoto, the three elephants who have lived their entire lives in a tiny display. Decades of scientific research has shown that these intelligent, sentient beings suffer physically and psychologically living in an impoverished zoo environment.

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From In Defense of Animals’ website:

In Defense of Animals (IDA) attended the first meeting of the Woodland Park Zoo’s “Elephant Task Force” on April 18th. Based on observations of the panel over the course of more than three hours, IDA fears that our first impression was accurate: this “Force” is a farce orchestrated by the zoo.

Contrary to the charge to “conduct a data-driven, objective review of the zoo’s elephant program, exhibit and current elephant welfare,” the zoo contrived a scenario to deflect criticism and shore up eroding public support for its elephant program. The zoo appears to have carefully selected a panel to ensure one outcome: protecting the interests of the Woodland Park Zoo, rather than the best interests of Bamboo, Watoto, and Chai.

The zoo convened a panel of 15 people, but in a clear conflict of interest, a third of the panel is closely associated with the zoo. Three panel members are current zoo board members, one is a former zoo board member, and one is a founding member of a zoo committee. Two of the panel’s zoo board members—Bryan Slinker and Rob Liddell—have already made their views known in an op-ed published last year in The Seattle Times criticizing members of the public who questioned the zoo’s practices and care of the elephants.

The remaining panel members include several attorneys, a public affairs officer, a museum employee, a YWCA board member, and a University of Washington director. None of the panel members have any recognized expertise in captive or wild elephant issues and welfare, or on the subject of public education about elephants and related conservation. In introducing themselves, numerous panel members noted they were “brand new to the issue.”

To their credit, it is apparent that select members of the task force are well-meaning, intelligent, and critical thinkers committed to serving to the best of their abilities. Experts spend decades, even entire lifetimes, studying elephants. Yet, this panel is expected to overcome a massive learning curve in a matter of months and provide recommendations to the zoo board that will, in all likelihood, seal the fate of Bamboo, Chai, and Watoto.

Of potentially greater concern is a sub-task force charged with reviewing the health and care of the elephants and the zoo’s elephant breeding program. In a convenient and a strategic move, the zoo gave Slinker the job of convening five “outside scientific and medical experts.” And what a great job Slinker did—for the zoo. The experts may work outside of the Woodland Park Zoo, but they are all zoo-industry insiders. Two are even advisors for the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Elephant Taxon Advisory Group & the Species Survival Plan, which is tasked with heading up breeding plans for zoo elephants. The AZA is a trade-industry group heralded by zoos, but highly criticized for its weak standards. It was with AZA complicity that the Woodland Park Zoo has attempted unsuccessfully to artificially inseminate Chai more than 112 times.

IDA sincerely hopes that this task force—at least the 10 members who are not directly affiliated with the Woodland Park Zoo—take their appointments very seriously and do their homework. The very lives of Bamboo, Chai, and Watoto may depend on it.

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Your donation will be doubled on May 15th by The Seattle Foundation!

On Wednesday, May 15, 2013, Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (a NARN campaign) and NARN will share in receiving matching funds in The Seattle Foundation’s give Big Day.

Please put May 15th in your calendar to donate to NARN so we can work harder for animals.

Donate here on May 15th!

NARN is dedicated to ending the exploitation of animals by raising awareness of animal suffering in the food, entertainment, experimentation, and fashion industries since 1986. Our efforts include outreach, demonstrations, litigation, and with an emphasis on educational events. Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants is working to secure the release of Bamboo, Chai and Watoto, the three elephants who have lived their entire lives in a tiny display. Decades of scientific research has shown that these intelligent, sentient beings suffer physically and psychologically living in an impoverished zoo environment.

Please donate to NARN on May 15, 2013 to help elephants and other animals in a BIGGER way!

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Seattle, WA — Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants is hopeful the Elephant Task Force will reach the conclusion that elephants are not suited to be in Woodland Park Zoo’s elephant exhibit—especially in Seattle’s climate. We must question what we are told and by whom. Five people on the task force have been or are on the Zoo Board and others have a working connection with WPZ. Not a single member of the task force represents an animal advocacy perspective.

Experts outside of the zoo industry use science and decades of research to prove that these highly intelligent and social animals’ needs cannot be met in a static zoo environment.

WPZ’s “award-winning naturalistic [elephant] exhibit” was designed almost 30 years ago; long before much was known about what elephants need to thrive—and to not suffer. No matter how many times WPZ tells us that the keepers and veterinarians give excellent care, (and we agree that is true) it does not change the fact that WPZ doesn’t have the critical components essential for a physically and psychologically healthy existence: Space, climate, novel experiences and social opportunities.

Space is essential to these far ranging animals. Without it they suffer from foot disease, the main killer of elephants in zoos. WPZ’s one acre is woefully inadequate for the planet’s largest land mammal. WPZ’s own medical records show this lack of movement results in painful and worsening lameness, arthritis and chronic foot issues.

Seattle’s wet and cold climate forces these intelligent animals, who sleep only 4 hours a day, to be locked in a tiny, barren indoor stall for 16–17 hours, every day, for over half of the year. It is no surprise Bamboo, Chai and Watoto exhibit stereotypical behaviors which is the mind’s way of coping with trauma, stress and crushing boredom.

The three elephants are a dysfunctional group; none are bonded to each other. They do not engage in healthy elephant behaviors: synchronized play or touching each other with their trunks. When in the barn, either Bamboo or Watoto are locked in solitary confinement due to possible aggression.

While we are skeptical the task force will recommend what is best for Bamboo, Chai and Watoto: retirement from living on display in Seattle, we hope they have the courage to recommend significantly improving the lives of these three individuals.

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According to an article in the Seattle P-I, the WPZ elephants will get a “public review” of the health and living conditions of its elephants. Unfortunately, that review committed has been hand-picked by the zoo’s own board.

After years of bad press and public concern about conditions of the elephants at Woodland Park Zoo – and about any zoo keeping elephants – the Seattle zoo’s board has created a public panel to look into the health and living conditions of its elephants.

The panel of community leaders will “evaluate the zoo’s elephant program and exhibit, the health and care of its three elephants, and the value of the zoo’s program to the zoo’s education and conservation objectives,” zoo officials wrote in a press release.

Read the full article: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Elephant-conditions-at-Woodland-Park-Zoo-to-get-4438937.php

Read the WPZ Task Force press release

The first meeting will take place April 18, 4-7pm, at the Seattle Public Library and is open to the public. From the article:

The first meeting of the task force will be Thursday, April 18, 4:00-7:00 p.m. at the Seattle Public Library. The meeting, and subsequent meetings, will be open to the public. Written comments from the public will be accepted and made part of the record; there will not be a public hearing. The meetings also will be videotaped and posted on the task force website.

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Pat Derby was a friend and champion to elephants suffering in zoos and circuses. Click here for a tribute to Pat Derby from PAWS.

Pat Derby with 71

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For the fourth time, In Defense of Animals (IDA) has chosen Woodland Park Zoo as one of the 10 worst zoos yet WPZ has made no changes to improve the quality of Bamboo,Chai and Watoto’s lives.  They have made no commitment to stop artificially inseminating Chai after 112 failed attempts.  WPZ have no plans to improve the elephants’ quarter of a century old display in which they languish.  Bamboo, Chai and Watoto are sentenced to unrelenting boredom and becoming more impaired until they die – if WPZ has their way.

Visit In Defense of Animals to learn more

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The Seattle Times reports:

Woodland Park Zoo’s elephant exhibit will be scrutinized by a panel of experts as part of a task force requested by Seattle City Council members who said they are concerned about the welfare and future of the zoo’s three aging elephants.

The inquiry was sparked by a citizen petition, signed by 7,500 people, as well as thousands of emails calling for an investigation after a Seattle Times two-part series, “Glamour Beasts,” which revealed that elephants are dying out in America’s accredited zoos.

Read the full story here

To those of you who signed petitions and sent emails, THANK YOU!!! You DID make a difference!

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Yet another excellent editorial in the Seattle Times, following their recent exposé on the WPZ elephants and the zoo’s aggressive and unsuccessful breeding program. Here’s an excerpt:

Confinement for large mammals with a physical and instinctual need for space insults their bodies and their minds. Grotesque reproductive drills and stunted lives for infants are no argument for continuing, literally, business as usual.

End the breeding efforts and ship the elephants to sanctuaries.

Read the full editorial, Learn from the ‘Glamour Beasts’

Check out the original series, Glamor Beasts: The dark side of elephant captivity

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