My heartfelt thanks to everyone for their contribution—large and small—in the effort for Bamboo, Chai and Watoto to have a better life. Let’s hope 2012 brings them peace and finds them in a sanctuary where they can heal and reclaim being an elephant.

Lily Tomlin with FOWPZE coordinators

Every e-mail you write, every donation you make to Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants and every person to whom you explain the plight of Bamboo, Chai and Watoto helps bring their freedom a little closer.

Thanks and a happy, healthy New Year to all,
Nancy and Alyne

Hansa, the only calf born at WPZ, was conceived when Chai was shipped to Missouri to be bred with a bull.  Hansa died of Endotheliotropic Herpes Virus (EEHV) which is almost always fatal to young Asian elephants and horrifically painful. The zoo industry’s own expert, Dr. Laura Richman, a pathologist with the Smithsonian National Zoo, said that Hansa would have gotten it from one of the zoo’s other elephants. Chai could transmit the virus through the birthing process. There is no cure for EEHV and WPZ has no infection control in place.

Elephants have evolved over 40 million years to become the animal they are today: highly intelligent, highly social, and genetically wired to move great distances.  WPZ’s elephant display, designed in 1986, is woefully inadequate resulting in the elephants’ worsening physical and psychological conditions.  The elephants are locked in a 2,500 sq. ft. barn for 16-17 hours every day for about 7 months of the year.  Incompatilbility forces one of them to be in solitary confinement.  The 1 acre yard is divided into 5 tiny pens in order to keep the incompatible elephants separated.

WPZ claims having a calf aids the conservation of elephants.  No calf born at WPZ will ever be released into the wild—the accepted measure of ex-situ wildlife conservation.

Furthermore, if a fraction of the $400,000.00 it costs to keep elephants in Seattle each year was used to fund anti-poaching teams or fund organizations working to control habitat loss, real elephant conservation would be advanced.

Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants continues to appeal to WPZ and the Seattle City Council to allow the elephants retire to the 2,700 acre Elephant Sanctuary in TN; it’s a win all the way around:

• Seattle gets out of a law suit.
• WPZ saves about $400,000.000 annually.
• Our children learn a valuable lesson in science and compassion.
• Chai, Bamboo, and Watoto can heal from the traumas of zoo captivity.

Tearing Connie and Shaba apart is unconscionable.

Reid Park Zoo elephants

A fundamental requirement in elephants is being a bonded member of a social group.  Anyone who knows anything about elephants knows this, yet the Tucson City Council succumbed to Reid Park Zoo and voted to separate them.

Please help these elephants by filling out IDA’s form:  Click here.

It’s fast and so important.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/11/24/zoo-to-send-elephants-to-california-reserve

Unfortunately, the elephant keepers are still resisting what’s best for the elephants by not allowing Ed Stewart from PAWS to see the elephants. Hopefully the elephant keepers will  sign on to this compassionate move so that PAWS can work with the elephants on training for their transport.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1092744

“There will be a time when people will be shocked that we ever allowed the suffering of these animals in the name of entertainment to continue so long. Elephants living in chains and being beaten; lions and tigers in small cages on trucks, being whipped to perform tricks; it’s the dark ages. This bill helps bring us out of the dark ages.”   -BOB BARKER

Visit the PAWS website to learn more

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to find out how you can help

Click here to view the embedded video.

The following message is from The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee…

My dear friends,

I write to you with very sad news. Tarra’s little dog Bella has died. We found her body on Wednesday and have been dealing with the aftermath ever since, trying to work out what happened while we look after Tarra and each other.

We noticed Bella was not with Tarra at breakfast on Tuesday and later that morning she still had not appeared. Tarra and Bella have always spent short periods apart as one goes off exploring briefly on their own, but this longer absence worried us deeply and a search of the property was started which continued into the next day. The search ended tragically when Bella’s body was found close to the Asia barn that had long been home to Tarra, her five sisters and Bella. During the time of the search our usually social Tarra chose to remain alone, watched over by concerned Caregivers.

Dr. Scott, our vet of sixteen years, examined Bella for the last time and, with advice from the experts from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, determined the probable cause of death was an attack by animals, most likely coyotes. We have sent off samples to see whether there were any other contributory causes.

Having carefully examined Bella’s wounds and the place where she was found, we concluded that Bella had not been attacked near where she was found and neither could she have walked there.

As these investigations were taking place observant Caregivers, even more watchful of Tarra than usual, noticed blood on the underside of her trunk, evidence that pointed us in the direction of what likely happened that fateful night.

The most probable scenario is that during the night Bella strayed from Tarra briefly and was set upon. Tarra arrived too late to save her but was able to stop further damage being done to Bella’s body. With deep sadness and deeper wonder we come to comprehend what likely happened next—that Tarra picked Bella up and carried her home.

Further evidence in support of our belief for what happened comes from Tarra herself. After Bella had been found, Caregivers ensured Tarra had every chance to inspect Bella’s body before it was buried and to come to terms with her death, as this is an important part of the grieving process for elephants. But Tarra was not interested in either Bella or the group of Caregivers who would normally have drawn our inquisitive Girl to see what was happening.

It was only later when we had pieced together the whole picture that Tarra’s behavior at Bella’s grave made sense. Our poor, brave, loving Girl knew what had happened to her beloved Bella and, in the dark hours of the night as she carried her body home, had come to terms with her death.

Tarra’s sisters will help her through her sadness. Although we cannot take away Tarra’s pain immediately or the pain of all those that knew Bella, I do know Bella knew true love and true freedom. It will always be so for animals that find Sanctuary.

Rob Atkinson
CEO

The Toronto City Council overruled the Zoo’s interests and used science and compassion in making their decision to choose a life that is healthiest for their elephants.

Like Toronto’s elephants, Seattle’s three elephants:  Bamboo, Chai and Watoto spend over half the year locked in a barren barn stall barely large enough to turn around.   Our elephants’ lock up lasts 16–17 hours a day with either Bamboo or Watoto in solitary confinement.

Like Toronto’s elephants, our elephants have less than one acre of outdoor space.

Like Toronto’s elephants, our elephants exhibit repetitive neurotic behaviors called stereotypies due to the trauma of captivity and crushing boredom.

Like Toronto’s elephants our elephants are very costly to house: about $400,000.00 each year.

When the Toronto Zoo looked into expanding the elephant exhibit, they discovered the costs were prohibitive.  The LA Zoo, for example, spent $42.5 million in 2009 on a 3.6 acre display—inadequate the day it opened.

Bull hook - photo from IDA

After centuries of elephant keepers in zoos beating elephants into submission and compliance, AZA requires zoos holding elephants to adopt Protected Contact management.

Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants is pleased that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) has directed all zoos in their system to transition to an elephant management method called “protected contact”.  Protected contact requires that there is always a barrier between the keeper and the elephant.

Under the former method of management called “free contact”, the keeper shares the same space as the elephant.  This requires the use of the sharp pointed bullhook to protect the keeper.  Elephants under this form of management have been routinely beaten so the mere sight of the bullhook instills fear and submission.  About half of the zoos in the AZA system still uses this antiquated and cruel method but that will change by Sept. 1, 2014.

Protected contact improves the quality of life for elephants who live under the fear of the bullhook while improving the safety for those who work with elephants.

Airplane banner over WPZ (photo from Ballard News-Tribune)

On Friday, July 15, the Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants took their protest to the air. Towing a banner with the message “Zoo elephants suffer”, an airplane flew over Woodland Park Zoo and the surrounding neighborhoods.

“When people see the aerial message, we hope they will contact the Seattle City Council and WPZ to ask for the release of these long-suffering elephants to the Sanctuary”, says Sandy Clinton of Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants.

As the airplane was coming in from Renton, members of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants and Sound Animal Rights Alliance lined the West entrance of the Woodland Park Zoo, calling for the release of the Zoo’s elephants to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

Read the full story in the Ballard News-Tribune

The local group crusading for the release of the Woodland Park Zoo’s three elephants will be receiving a little air support in their fight tomorrow when an airplane trailing a banner reading, “Zoo elephants suffer,” will take to the Seattle skies.

Alyne Fortgang, of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, said the aerial message –flying above the zoo and I-5 during rush-hour traffic – will help the group reach tens of thousands of eyes.

Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants has been advocating for the release of the elephants to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, claiming the small space of captivity at the zoo is causing the animals physical and mental ailments.

Read the full story here