In Defense Of Animals Releases 2013 List Of “Ten Worst Zoos For Elephants”

Marking our ten-year anniversary of exposing the suffering endured by elephants in zoos across North America, IDA released this week our 2013 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants.

IDA’s list once again illustrates how the zoo industry routinely ignores the needs of elephants through reckless breeding; housing them in unnatural social groupings in inadequate exhibits and cold climates; using outdated, harmful management techniques; and relying on conservation as a justification for keeping elephants in captivity while wild elephants are being slaughtered to near-extinction.

Several repeat offenders landed on the 2013 list, including the Edmonton Valley Zoo and Buttonwood Park Zoo, while the Denver Zoo joins it for the first time. The Niabi Zoo and Bowmanville Zoo also earned the well-deserved, unenviable distinction of being inducted into the Hall of Shame.

Read the full list of IDA’s 2013 Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants here.