Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants

Closing the elephant exhibit at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium is within sight but what about the two elephants living there?

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium (PDZA) is holding a public comment meeting to discuss their 10-year plan which includes closing their tiny elephant exhibit – but not until poor Hanako and Suki die.

WHY WAIT for them to die? Why force them to continue to live in this physically and psychologically harmful environment?

Please come to ask (or write) that the humane decision be made. Ask for Hanako and Suki to be retired to an elephant sanctuary.

When: THIS Monday, April 25^th from 4:30 – 6pm. Come anytime!

Location:
Metro Parks Headquarters Board Room
4702 South 19^th Street
Tacoma, WA

If you can’t come: Please e-mail the zoo at:  strategicplan@pdza.org

Or snail mail: Attention Strategic Plan, 5400 North Pearl St. Tacoma, WA 98407
You can also join their facebook page and leave comments supporting the end to the elephant exhibit. https://www.facebook.com/PtDefianceZoo

To be most effective, be polite and thoughtful.

The Elephant Sanctuary has posted a great message of support for Lily Tomlin and other celebrities who use their resources to help those in need. In this case, elephants who are suffering in a life of confinement.

I always enjoy hearing how celebrities use their fame and money to give back. It’s even better when the celebrity is a fellow Michigander, like Lily Tomlin.

Tomlin has chosen to devote her spare time in a crusade against elephants in captivity. And on January 20th, she will speak on behalf of the new documentary Elephants and Man: A Litany of Tragedy. The film covers the history of elephants in captivity and exposes the cruelty that is at the center of this history. You can watch the film on YouTube, split into seven segments, but prepare yourself for the graphic content.

Throughout the years, Tomlin has spoken out against zoos housing elephants. She fought against the $42 million enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo, championed a quest to relocate an elephant at the Dallas Zoo, and has joined the battle to urge Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo to remove their three elephants.

Read the full story on elephants.com

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports on a tragic death of a zoo elephant keeper at the Knoxville Zoo.

Photo from knoxnews.com

Stephanie James didn’t need to die.  If the Knoxville Zoo used protected contact which means that there is always a barrier between the elephant and keeper, James would be alive today.

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) which accredits zoos abrogated their responsibility by not requiring protected contact as a condition for accreditation. Protected contact is used in only about half of AZA accredited zoos.

However looking at the bigger picture:  It’s time for humans to understand that we can’t take a highly intelligent and social animal like an elephant and deprive it of all that is instinctual.  If the public knew what it takes to dominate an 8,000 pound elephant they would be appalled.  Edie’s reaction to decades of dominance, severe confinement, lack of space and sensory deprivation is not surprising – about 1 elephant keeper a year is killed in zoos and circuses.

The answer to saving keeper lives is to not display elephants in zoos in the first place.

Read the full story here

Photo courtesy of broadwayworld.com

Kudos for these celebs who stuck their necks out to expose the cruelty perpetrated upon elephants in zoos.  Hopefully more people will understand the consequences of their patronizing zoos.

Read the full article:

Cher, Baldwin, Tomlin et al. Set for Elephant Documentary Premiere

Photo by SCPR

Southern California Public Radio reports on a lawsuit brought against the Los Angeles Zoo, to shut down the elephant exhibit.

“While elephants are forced to stay in zoos, they really don’t live in zoos,” says Casselman. “They die in zoos.”

Read or listen to the full story here

Photo credit: The Elephant Sanctuary

Check out the recent letter from the new CEO of The Elephant Sanctuary:

Dear Friends,

I’m so pleased to be writing to you at last, in this my first ever e-Trunklines. It’s been an exciting journey so far, getting to know all the staff as well as our precious elephants. I’ve had minimal time to adjust from England to being in Tennessee—I got off the plane and set more or less straight to work! There is so much to be done, but first of all I needed to meet the staff and the elephants. As I write I’ve just got back from spending the day working with our Q-barn eles and their caregivers. I worked yesterday with Tange and Flora in Africa and tomorrow I’m looking forward to spending time in Asia.

We all know the elephants are the stars of the show, which always has been and always will be ‘all about the elephants.’  But I do want to tell you all how pleased I am to have met, talked to and worked with the caregivers. They are truly amazing in their knowledge and passion. Although they are nothing less than the elephants deserve, I have rarely met such a dedicated group of people. And our administration staff have impressed me just as much—they remain 100% committed to the elephants even though they seldom even see them.

The histories of our elephants are full of drama and interest and sometimes sadness, but their present and future lives with the Sanctuary inspire me and fill me with hope. I look out at what the Sanctuary has provided—acres and acres of gentle pasture and wooded hills, springs, creeks, ponds, and warm barns. There is nowhere like it on earth and I am blessed to be here.

Thank you for all you do for the Sanctuary and the elephants it cares for. I want you to remember we would not be here if it weren’t for you.

Wishing you all a happy and peaceful 2011.

Rob Atkinson
CEO

Zoo elephants

The Telegraph (UK) reports that the RSPCA is recommending that UK zoos no longer keep elephants in zoos because it is inhumane. Here’s an excerpt:

They have a far shorter life-span and higher infant mortality rate than wild elephants and also suffer from high levels of obesity, a report found.

They also show behavioural abnormalities and a level of lameness equivalent to that endured by intensively farmed livestock “recognised internationally as cause for great welfare concern.”

But conservationists said the Government funded study should have called for an outright ban on bringing anymore elephants into UK zoos.

Read the full article in the Telegraph

Dondi

An elephant in a Massachusetts Zoo has died at the young age of 36, according to In Defense of Animals’ blog:

IDA filed a complaint today with the USDA, urging an investigation into the death of Dondi, an Asian elephant held at the Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon, Massachusetts. She died on Wednesday, after suffering an unidentified illness. Dondi’s unexpected death raises a red flag because at age 36 she should have been in the prime of life.

Check out the full story here.

We’re all busy, but please take a few minutes to help those who are powerless and suffer at the hands of human greed and ignorance.

An elephant in a Shrine Circus in Pennsylvania kicked and killed his trainer.

Elephants in circuses suffer from brutal training and treatment, are forced to spend hundreds of hours in small travelling containers, and are deprived of everything instinctual to their nature.

Please voice your outrage over keeping elephants in circuses.

Here is info and graphic videos of how elephants suffer in circuses:   http://www.circuses.com/

Here is info on the Shriner’s mission:  http://www.alepposhriners.com/shrinersmission.html

Contact info:

Irem Shrine, P. O. Box 307, Dallas, PA 18612.

Shriners International Headquarters, 2900 Rocky Point Drive, Tampa, FL 33607, email: shrinepr@shrinenet.org.

Email Shrine Circus: roger@shrinecircus.com

Write your local Congressperson and ask them to support legislation that would abolish elephants in traveling shows.

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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