Activists Blame Death of Second Elephant In Chicago On San Diego Zoo
Zoo Industry Urged To Put Elephants Before Business, Reveal Truth Behind Bars

San Diego-In the wake of the second elephant death at the Lincoln Park Zoo in less than three months, members of In Defense of Animals (IDA) and Animal Protection and Rescue League (APRL) will gather at the San Diego Zoo to call on the zoo industry to acknowledge that elephant enclosures are deadly displays and that it must take immediate steps to transfer zoo pachyderms to more naturalistic and spacious sanctuaries:

When: Wednesday, January 19, 2005 at 12 noon
Where: San Diego Zoo, main entrance on Zoo Dr.

Peaches is the sixth elephant to die at a U.S. zoo within twelve months. Hers is the second death of three elephants transferred from San Diego to Chicago just two years ago. This egregious track record highlights the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's (AZA) promotion of business interests over elephants' needs for expansive space and complex social networks.

As AZA Directors gather in sunny Florida this week to strategize the best way to attract crowds, the industry trade group refuses to admit that zoos' inability to provide for elephants' physical and social needs is resulting in prolonged suffering and premature death of elephants. Peaches, the 55-year-old elephant euthanized Monday at the Lincoln Park Zoo, died years short of an elephant's natural lifespan of up to 70 years. Tatima, also from San Diego died at the Lincoln Park Zoo in October at age 34.

Peaches, Tatima and a third surviving elephant, Wankie, were exiled to cold Chicago in April 2003 by the San Diego Zoo, which dumped the ailing elephants to make room for younger elephants captured from the wild in Africa. The zoo's shocking betrayal of the elephants who had lived in San Diego for over three decades was decried by IDA and animal protection advocates, who predicted - correctly - that the elephants would not live long in Chicago, where, after being trucked 2000 miles, they would be forced to spend long winter months confined indoors in concrete stalls.

"The zoo industry continues to play with numbers and lie to the public about elephants' natural lifespan in the wild simply to combat growing public concern for elephants in zoos," says IDA President Elliot Katz, DVM. "It is time to end the suffering and end the practice of keeping elephants in small enclosures that prevent adequate movement and cause them to suffer and die."

In the wild, elephants can walk tens of miles a day over varied terrains, activity that is essential for their health. In zoos, elephants spend their time inactive in cramped enclosures, standing on concrete or hard compacted dirt which leads to extremely painful degenerative joint disorders and recurrent foot infections, as well as digestive and reproductive problems. As the largest land mammal, elephants are genetically designed for almost constant movement, yet, AZA standards allow an elephant to be held in an enclosure of 1,800 square feet -the equivalent of six parking spaces.

The Lincoln Park and San Diego Zoos both landed on IDA's 2004 Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants list for their mishandling of Peaches, Wankie and Tatima and their refusal to transfer the elephants to a sanctuary where they could walk on soft soil, take mud baths and improve painful foot and joint problems.

Please visit savezooelephants.com for more information.