FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Toni Frohoff, Ph.D., 805-836-0496, toni@idausa.org

In Defense of Animals Files Federal Complaint in Death of Wildlife Safari Elephant

What Killed Alice the Elephant – Was it a Car Wash or Captivity?

San Rafael, Calif. (November 6, 2014) – In Defense of Animals (IDA) today filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), urging an investigation into the premature death of Alice, an African elephant at the Wildlife Safari in Winston, Oregon. Alice died last week at age 44, purportedly from “natural causes.” African elephants can live to be 65 years old.

“Alice’s death raises a red flag because she was only middle-aged for an elephant. If she were still in the wild, she would have been giving birth and raising calves into her 50s and maybe even 60s,” said Toni Frohoff, Ph.D., IDA’s Elephant and Cetacean Scientist. She added, “death by ‘natural causes’ is suspicious – especially when there was so little that was natural about Alice’s life or her death.”

Alice was used as a living “car wash” for entertainment to the zoos patrons. As she amused the visitors she was controlled by the presence of a bullhook, a sharp instrument used to threaten, and sometimes inflict painful physical punishment. Video: http://bit.ly/10WJdmz

“Given that zoos provide daily care, veterinary treatment, and regular feedings, one might expect captive elephants to live longer than their counterparts in the wild, but this is not the case,” continued Frohoff. “Zoos have long tried to cover up the fact that elephants are dying prematurely in inadequate captive conditions.”

According to Frohoff, the last elephant to die at Wildlife Safari was Tiki, at only 40 years of age. Wildlife Safari never revealed the cause of Tiki’s death, despite IDA’s formal inquiries. IDA’s letter to the USDA is calling for a renewed investigation in to Tiki’s death, as a matter of public interest. The organization is also questioning the timing of Alice’s death, which occurred just two weeks after Wildlife Safari acquired another female elephant, Moja.

IDA also sent a letter to the Wildlife Safari Executive Director Dan Van Slyke, urging him to publicly release the elephants’ veterinary records and necropsy reports. Frohoff stated, “The public has a right to know the true cause of Alice’s and Tiki’s deaths. Wildlife Safari also has a responsibility to let other wildlife professionals know. If there is nothing to hide there should be transparency.”

Tiki and Alice were both captured in South Africa and traumatically removed from their mothers at age two, a time when they would have still been nursing, and sold to Wildlife Safari. Female elephants naturally remain with their families and mothers for life.

Wildlife Safari earned the dubious honor of appearing on IDA’s 2013 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants due in part to the facility’s use of the elephants as living “car washes” for the entertainment of the zoos patrons.

Frohoff concluded. “Alice was not a car wash – she was an intelligent individual who remained graceful despite her hardships. Elephant car washes and conservation just do not mix.” Copies of

IDA’s letters to the USDA and Wildlife Safari are available upon request.

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