IDA, PETA, FRIENDS OF WANKIE DEMAND RESIGNATION OF ZOO DIRECTOR OVER THIRD ELEPHANT DEATH
Sneaky Trip on Eve of City Council Vote to Send Wankie to a Sanctuary Proves Fatal; Protest Planned

Chicago - Lincoln Park Zoo’s last surviving elephant, Wankie, who was destroyed Sunday morning after arriving at Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, has sparked a protest at the zoo, which will take place on Tuesday, and a call for zoo director Kevin Bell to resign. Wankie reportedly collapsed in Nebraska during transport from Chicago. 

The groups allege that the zoo rushed to sneak Wankie out of Chicago before the May 12 Chicago City Council’s Parks & Recreation Committee hearing so as to render moot a vote on a well-supported resolution calling for Wankie to go to a sanctuary and for the zoo to permanently close its elephant exhibit. The groups are also calling on Bell to publicly release Wankie’s medical records and necropsy reports, something he has refused to do for her two late companions, Peaches and Tatima, who died recently—within months of each other—after the three elephants arrived from San Diego, a move that animal advocates had warned was inhumane and potentially fatal:

Date: Tuesday, May 3
Time: 12 noon-1 p.m.
Place: Lincoln Park Zoo administration offices, 2001 N. Clark St.

PETA is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to investigate and pursue charges against the zoo for failure to provide adequate care in transit if negligence played a role in her death. The group suspects that a rushed exit strategy did not allow for adjustment to the travel crate. A stressed Wankie may have been tranquilized for the 1,400 mile journey, which could have contributed to her collapse and breathing problems about halfway through the trip. When an elephant goes down, they must be helped upright within an hour or two, or their weight crushes their internal organs. In this case, a decision was made to keep on driving with Wankie down.

“Lincoln Park Zoo failed these elephants by bringing them from sunny California to a cramped concrete slab in cold and windy Chicago,” says PETA Director Debbie Leahy. “With three premature elephant deaths in six months, Kevin Bell must step down now.”

Numerous problems had been observed with the elephants since their April 2003 arrival in Chicago, including lameness, weight loss, and other signs of distress. While Lincoln Park Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park, which retained ownership of the elephants, issued conflicting statements about the cause of Tatima’s death, the groups believe that she died from osteomyelitis, a common cause of death in captive elephants related to lack of space.

For more information, please visit SaveZooElephants.com.