Chai in ERD (elephant restraining device) - photo from mynorthwest.com, Dennis Dow
Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) artificially inseminated Chai, a female elephant, for the 60th time. Inseminated 50 times prior to her daughter, Hansa’s, birth and 10 times since have yielded only miscarriages. Hansa, died of the deadly endotheliotropic elephant herpes virus (EEHV). Watoto, one of three elephants on display at WPZ, tested positive in 2008 for the same strain of EEHV that killed Hansa. There is no cure and WPZ has no infection control in place—in fact Chai could transmit the virus to her own fetus.
The virus attacks the internal organs causing massive hemorrhaging and a painful, gruesome death. “To even take a chance of causing another defenseless calf such a horrific death is unconscionable and unethical” says Nancy Pennington, co-founder of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (FOWPZE).
“Breeding elephants to live on public display is a moral question as well”, adds Pennington. Due to Seattle’s wet and cold climate the elephants are locked in a tiny barn stall for 16-17 hours daily for 7 months of the year. Outside the elephants have less than one acre. This is an inhumane amount of space causing physical and psychological harm to these far-ranging elephants.
FOWPZE has made WPZ management, the Woodland Park Zoological Society, and the Seattle City Council aware of the consequences of this deadly breeding program.
The statistics and current science clearly show it is irresponsible to breed in the herpes-infected Woodland Park Zoo.
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