Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants

Chai’s foot being soaked. She has suffered with foot infections for at least 10 years.

When: June 20, 2009, 11:00am – 12:00
Where: Woodland Park Zoo – Main (south) Entrance: 750 N. 50th St. (and N. Fremont) Seattle, WA

In Defense of Animals has set an International Day of Action to expose the plight of elephants in zoos all over the world.

Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants is proud to be a part of this. Please join us on June 20th at 11am when we ask Woodland Park Zoo to release Watoto, Bamboo, and Chai from their inhumane confinement to the 2,700 acre Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

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

This supportive letter appeared in The Seattle Times in response to our recent press release with Lily Tomlin.

I am very thankful to Lily Tomlin for advocating for our Woodland Park Zoo (WPZ) elephants to improve their present, unhealthy lives ["Cause for star: elephants," NW Tuesday, April 28].

WPZ claims it is giving its three elephants, Watoto, Bamboo and Chai, the best of care and I am sure that they try, but it is not enough. The zoo cannot give them what they don’t have and what these pachyderms need most, which is lots of space. The way they live now is as if we were forced to live in a bathtub for the rest of our lives.

Keeping them here when they could go for free to the 2,700-acre Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is selfishly wrong. It is time to do the right thing and let them go!

It is great when celebrities lend their names to causes. It attracts more attention from the media and, consequently, the public. Therefore, bravo again to Tomlin for speaking out for those who can’t: the elephants at WPZ.

– Claudine Erlandson, Shoreline

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.

Caged Tiger

Best Friends Magazine has a terrific article this month, written by Lori Marino, Gay Bradshaw and Randy Malamud, entitled The Captivity Industry: The reality of zoos and aquariums.

Dr. Gay Bradshaw was extremely helpful to Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants in helping to understand Bamboo’s abnormal behavior when we first began our campaign to help Bamboo in 2005.

The intro to the article reads:

Millions of people visit zoos, marine parks and aquariums
every year. Ostensibly, these places provide an opportunity
to look at, connect with and appreciate the beauty and
behavior of the animals. Indeed, everyone is drawn to the majesty
and mystery of animals who look and live so differently than we
do, but nonetheless seem so similar to us.

But more is going on than meets the eye. Exactly what are we
learning about other animals in these places? How is the zoo experi-
ence different for the animals than it is for the visitors? And what
might we learn about ourselves by casting a more examining eye
on the institution of zoos and aquariums?

Download the article: The Captivity Industry

Following up on our previous post, the St. Louis Zoo has now discovered a second baby elephant at the zoo has the deadly herpes virus, as reported on STLToday.com:

The St. Louis Zoo is grappling with a second case of a potentially deadly strain of herpes that first struck an elephant calf more than a week ago.

Tests show Maliha, 2, has the same elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus, or EEHV, that was diagnosed earlier this month in her half sister Jade.

But zookeepers say the cases could not appear more different, raising more questions about a mysterious illness that has killed Asian elephants across the nation.

Read the full story on STLToday.com

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.