Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants

The following press release was distributed on Thursday, January 21, 2010 by In Defense of Animals. The St. Louis Zoo is currently home to Sri, who originally lived at the Woodland Park Zoo for 21 years. While the Zoo insists that it would be cruel to send Bamboo, Chai, or Watoto across country to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, they had no problem shipping Sri to Missouri to breed.  Sri got pregnant and the fetus died in utero.  Sri still carries the dead fetus 5 years later.

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.

In a statement released today, Dr. Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist with thirty years experience studying wild elephants in Africa with the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, stated:

“Elephants deserve our respect and human decency, not confinement and control in degrading, dangerous conditions. St Louis Zoo is a classic example of how not to keep elephants in captivity. The problems are many and easy to see: eight elephants in a subdivided enclosure of just over an acre when they really need square miles, physical ailments resulting from the lack of movement, a cold climate requiring even closer confinement for months on end, and an incurable disease that is more likely to spread in such a tightly-packed group. How can zoo authorities be thinking of breeding under such conditions, inflicting additional stress on the mothers and bringing tiny calves into such a world of suffering?”

With the zoo’s two most recent births, each calf suffered life-threatening situations unseen in wild-living elephants. Maliha, born in 2006, failed to gain weight when mother Ellie didn’t produce enough milk and required extraordinary measures to insure her survival. Jade, born in 2007, was rejected and attacked by her mother on more than one occasion, suffering “superficial abrasions and contusions” during one incident, according to zoo records.
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Watoto alone, pacing in Shower Room

Seattle, WA – Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) has been inducted into IDA’s (In Defense of Animal) Hall of shame.  Lack of space, captivity-induced ailments, and the deadly breeding program all add up to suffering for Bamboo, Chai, and Watoto.  This suffering in addition to WPZ’s search for ways to cut costs, begs for the elephants to be released to the 2,700 acre Elephant Sanctuary (TES)— at no cost to Seattle taxpayers or WPZ.

From a humane perspective, elephant experts say WPZ’s less-than-one acre elephant exhibit is inadequate for these migratory giants who are genetically wired to travel great distances.

Seattle’s winters force the elephants indoors for 16 – 17 hours a day.  “Their stall permits them to pace only a few steps in any direction. Outdoors they have less than 1 acre!” says Nancy Pennington, Co-founder of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (FOWPZE).

WPZ’s  medical records reveal that Watoto, Bamboo and Chai suffer from colic, arthritis, obesity, herpes (which killed Hansa at 6-years- old) and foot infections.  Foot disease is the number one reason zoo elephants are euthanized and Chai has suffered from foot infections for over ten years.

“Particularly heartbreaking is witnessing Bamboo, Chai, and Watoto’s repetitive neurotic behaviors— the effects of long term suffering” says Pennington.

WPZ is planning to artificially inseminate Chai for the 56^th time in the spring.  Any calf born at this herpes-infected Zoo will likely die from the disease just as Hansa did.  WPZ has no infection control in place.   There is no cure for this excruciatingly painful disease that results in an almost certain death in young Asian elephants.

FOWPZE is calling for our elephants to join 15 other elephants at The Elephant Sanctuary; roam hills, forests and meadows; and swim in a 25-acre lake—all in a lush sub-tropical climate.

WPZ needs to make the unselfish and prudent financial decision to let Bamboo, Chai and Watoto heal from the traumas of zoo confinement.