Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants

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.

Joan Baez

Joan Baez played a show at the Woodland Park Zoo recently, and stopped in at the elephant exhibit to get a first-hand look at how the elephants live at the zoo. This unanticipated and unsolicited article is her reaction. Here is an excerpt:

The elephant caretakers were kind enough to show me around the barn and introduce me to Watoto, Bamboo, and Chai. I blew into their trunks, and they blew back. We fed them carrots through the bars. They had almost no room to move, and when let outside they had only a tiny amount of barren ground to pace.

The concert was a huge success, not in small part because the Seattleites treated the rain as though it were a call to enjoy the wonders of Mother Nature. I dedicated a song to the elephants, making up the words as I went along, to the spiritual “Pilgrim of Sorrow.”

Watoto, Bamboo, and Chai were left pacing their unhappy quarters. Hopefully, if indeed elephants never forget, they can remember the happier times of their former lives. Better yet, with your help, they might be able to once more live in open space. With a concerted effort I believe they can be moved, and the ugly little secret of abused elephants at the zoo will be removed with them. Seattle is too wholesome a city to sustain such a blight under its generous skies.

Read the full story on Joan’s website.

The Ballard News-Tribune posted a great opinion piece about the conditions and expense of the elephant exhibit at Woodland Park Zoo, written by elephant advocate and FOWPZE co-founder Alyne Fortgang.

Woodland Park Zoo announced it will be closing the Night House exhibit in order to save money. It is reported that the zoo is cutting $700,000 dollars, including 12 full-time jobs, from its $29 million budget.

The most expensive animals to keep on display at a zoo are elephants – close to $400,000.00 a year for the three elephants housed at Woodland Park Zoo.

In addition to being expensive, the postage stamp-sized exhibit is woefully inadequate for the planet’s largest land mammal.

For about seven months of the year, the elephants are locked in a barren barn stall for 16 to 17 hours a day due to climate.

Outdoors, they share less than one acre of yard. Science has conclusively shown that deprivation of space and social contact causes mental and physical suffering in elephants, resulting in their lifespan being shortened by decades.

Read the full article about the WPZ elephant exhibit here.

Read the full article in the Seattle PostGlobe. After getting through the first 2 paragraphs of WPZ spin, you come to the crux of the issue:

The complaint, filed by the Sound Animal Rights Alliance, stems from the death two years ago of the Asian elephant, Hansa. According to a press release from the group, the complaint includes a declaration from a veterinarian with experience working with elephants that describes the zoo as an “infected environment.”

According to the press release, SARA, a local animal advocacy group, claims that the Zoo violated the AWA by exposing Hansa to the Zoo’s African elephant, Watoto, a known herpes risk factor, thereby causing her death and by continuing to try to breed Hansa’s mother, Chai, even after Hansa’s death from herpes. Experts stated the young elephant caught the virus from one of the adult elephants at the zoo.

Join the chorus of concerned citizens and leave a comment at the bottom of the article!

15-year-old Maia Sebek has taken it on as her high school project to campaign for the release of the WPZ elephants to The Elephant Sanctuary. She and her mother Mary talk with the host of Soul of Seattle on 1090am KPTK.

Check out this articulate, thoughtful young lady on the KPTK radio broadcast here

Comedian and actress, Lily Tomlin, speaks out on behalf of the Woodland Park Zoo elephants, advocating a move to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. This event was organized by Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants.

Lily Tomlin and FOWPZE

Lily Tomlin appeared at a press release in Seattle on Monday, by invitation of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants. We appreciate everyone who made this event such a wonderful success.

Cathy Sorbo wrote a great column in the Seattle Post Globe, entitled Zoo Directors in Denial. Here’s an excerpt:

The directors at the Woodland Park Zoo have long been in denial about the utter wrongness of keeping elephants captive on the zoo’s partitioned acre, and continued pleas to emancipate them (cost-free) to a 2,700-acre sanctuary in Tennessee have been met with defiance, excuses and refusal to give the animals up.

On April 27, Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants were able to organize a press conference at the Phinney Ridge Community Center with with Catherine Doyle (head of In Defense of Animals) and activist/actress Lily Tomlin who has been a vocal advocate for the release of zoo elephants for some time.

The message was simple: elephants are dying prematurely in zoos due to their inability to roam great distances. They suffer with the deadly herpes virus, foot and joint ailments and neurosis. There is a place for our zoo elephants Chai, Watoto and Bamboo at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee and FWPZE are doing what they can to raise public awareness needed to get these great animals to a place where they can walk, run and swim as was originally intended.

King5 has an article and video on the story: Lily Tomlin joins dispute over Seattle zoo elephants

From the Seattle P-I: Actress Lily Tomlin demands Woodland Park Zoo release elephants

In the Ballard News-Tribune: Comedian Lily Tomlin advocates sending zoo’s elephants to sanctuary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Renowned Actress Joins Effort to send Suffering Elephants to a Sanctuary

Lily Tomlin

Seattle, WA – Acclaimed actress, comedian, writer and producer Lily Tomlin will appear at a news conference with Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, a campaign of Northwest Animal Rights Network and national zoo watchdog group, In Defense of Animals to make an impassioned plea to the City of Seattle and Woodland Park Zoo to send the elephants Watoto, Chai and Bamboo to a sanctuary.

What: News conference with Lily Tomlin
When: Monday, April 27, 2009 at 11am
Where: Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103 Room #1 [directions]
Who: Lily Tomlin, Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (FOWPZE), In Defense of Animals, elephant advocates and concerned citizens
What else? Doughnuts and coffee

Tomlin’s visit comes on the heels of FOWPZE’s shocking finding that the elephants at Woodland Park Zoo are locked indoors in small, barren rooms for 16 – 17 hours a day for about 7 months out of the year. In contrast, free-ranging elephants walk tens of miles a day and are active for 20 hours a day.

“Elephants were never meant to live in the confinement of small urban zoos,” states Tomlin. “They are the world’s largest land mammals and they need to move to stay healthy.”

“The intensive and prolonged confinement of the elephants at Woodland Park Zoo is causing serious physical and mental suffering,” adds FOWPZE co-founder Alyne Fortgang. She says Zoo medical records paint a disturbing picture, with the elephants suffering painful joint and foot disorders, arthritis, and obesity. They also display abnormal stereotypic behaviors such as repetitive pacing and swaying.

“We’re happy to welcome Lily Tomlin to the fight for these elephants’ lives,” says Nancy Pennington, FOWPZE co-founder. “Woodland Park Zoo cannot provide the space, climate or habitat the elephants need to live a decent life.”

Tomlin has a long history of advocating for elephants. Turning her attention to Seattle, Tomlin will urge that the humane decision be made to send the elephants to the 2,700-acre Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. The Elephant Sanctuary has agreed to transport and care for the elephants for life at no cost to the City of Seattle or Woodland Park Zoo.

Baby Jade

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that the St. Louis Zoo, where Seattle elephant Sri was shipped off several years ago (so much for zoos not wanting to break important elephant bonds) has discovered a case of deadly herpes virus in their 2-year-old elephant, Jade. Our own Woodland Park Zoo is mentioned in this article as yet another zoo who has lost a young elephant to herpes.

Jade, a 23-month-old Asian elephant at the St. Louis Zoo, has been diagnosed with a strain of herpes that has proven fatal to elephants at other zoos and in the wild.

Jade is receiving antiviral medication and round-the-clock care from the veterinary and keeper staff, the zoo said.

She had been acting lethargic Sunday. A blood sample submitted to the Smithsonian National Zoological Park’s elephant herpes research laboratory Monday revealed the presence of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus, or EEHV. The virus causes a bleeding disease in elephants.

In just the past two years, the disease has killed elephants at the Calgary Zoo, Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, the Houston Zoo and the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Mo. The disease is responsible for half of the deaths in young elephants, according to the National Zoo. That concerns zoos because elephants have had difficulty breeding in captivity and have a high infant mortality rate.

Read the full story here.

Tied for 7th place, Woodland Park Zoo makes it onto In Defense of Animals’ Ten Worst Zoos List. This year, the decision focused mainly around the zoo’s obsessive breeding program:

WPZ Artifical Insemination

These zoos tied for the No. 6 spot because of their repeated efforts to artificially inseminate two breeding-age females, Woodland Park Zoo’s Chai, age 30, and Shanthi, age 33, at the National Zoo, despite the known risks to mother and calf. Both elephants have lost calves to the deadly elephant herpesvirus, and the Woodland Park Zoo acknowledges that there is a greater than one-in-five chance that any calf produced by Chai would also be stricken with the fatal disease. In addition, both elephants are very near the age when female elephants in zoos are no longer bred due to a higher risk of birth complications. Since 2001, at least 21 elephant pregnancies in U.S. zoos have ended in stillbirths or other complications, resulting in 17 dead babies and six dead mothers. Zoos won’t turn the tide on elephant welfare as long as they continue to treat these intelligent and complex individuals as little more than breeding machines to produce baby elephants at any cost. Both zoos are appearing on IDA’s Ten Worst Zoos list for the third time. The Woodland Park Zoo also appeared once as a Dishonorable Mention.