Zoo Life Endangers Elephants 
 by Mat Thomas, In Defense of Animals

Citing the latest scientific research, wildlife experts, concerned citizens and even many prominent zoo officials now assert that elephants suffer greatly in captivity from lack of movement. Important discoveries made only in the past decade or so offer strong evidence that zoos simply cannot provide the vast amount of space that elephants need to be healthy. As the earth’s largest land mammal, elephants typically walk tens of miles daily in the wild to forage, socialize and exercise, keeping their bodies strong and healthy. In contrast, zoos force members of this highly intelligent species to live in artificial enclosures that are tens of thousands of times smaller than their natural range. Unfortunately, decades of such confinement inevitably lead to crippling physical and psychological maladies.

The Knoxville Zoo’s beloved African elephant Mamie, famous for creating abstract works of art with paintbrush in trunk, has suffered for at least 15 years from chronic arthritis and foot disorders (the leading causes of death in captive elephants). Mamie has been at the Knoxville Zoo since 1979, and shares a three-acre “savannah” with three companions. At about 46 years of age, Mamie is the oldest elephant in her herd, but that doesn’t make her elderly. Wild elephants who survive drought and human poachers typically live about 65 years, compared to 38 years on average in captivity. In her natural habitat, Mamie could still be birthing calves, but instead she is so debilitated that she has to lean on giant piles of sand for support and even sleeps standing up because she has difficulty rising from a lying down position. Though Mamie has only lived about two-thirds of her natural lifespan, Knoxville Zoo Executive Director Jim Vlna recently predicted that she will survive for only another two years or even less. 

Elephants in zoos the world over are experiencing similar problems, as detailed in the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants List (www.savezooelephants.com/10_worst_2005.html) released annually by In Defense of Animals (IDA). Yet these institutions continue to exhibit elephants because financial priorities too often take precedence over what would be best for captive pachyderms: to live in one of America’s two sanctuaries for elephants. One of these, The Elephant Sanctuary (TES), is located right in Tennessee, about 50 miles southwest of Nashville. With 2,700 acres of hilly forests, pastures, lakes and fresh vegetation for grazing, TES provides elephants with an exceptionally higher quality of life than any zoo in the world possibly could. Carol Buckley founded TES over a decade ago specifically to care for elephants who have suffered from neglect, abuse or long-term confinement in zoos or circuses. Rather than standing around on display for public viewing, TES’s residents are allowed to live as elephants should. You can learn more at www.elephants.com.

More than a dozen zoos around the world have improved elephants’ lives by transferring them to sanctuaries. Please send a polite letter to Knoxville Zoo Executive Director Jim Vlna at P.O. Box 6040, Knoxville, TN 37914 urging him to send Mamie to TES while there’s still time. 

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