Elephant Dumped By San Diego Zoo Dies in Cold, Windy Chicago
Death Renews Focus on Captivity's Negative Impact on Elephant Health

Chicago -- Elephant advocates are calling for the transfer of two surviving elephants at Chicago's Lincoln Park Zoo to sanctuaries after the death of a third elephant, Tatima (age 34) this week. In Defense of Animals (IDA) says the latest elephant death highlights the health problems and shortened lifespan that zoos inflict on elephants. 

The group says the San Diego Zoo is responsible for Tatima's death as well as for the declining health of the two remaining elephants, Peaches and Wankie. In April 2002, the San Diego Zoo dumped the three ailing elephants at the Chicago Zoo to make room for younger, wild-caught elephants from Africa. 

"The shocking betrayal of these elephants by the San Diego Zoo has ended in tragedy," said IDA president Elliot Katz, a veterinarian. "Instead of living up to its moral obligation to provide care to the elephants in their old age, the San Diego Zoo exiled them to cold, windy Chicago, where their health further declined. The Zoo must now do the right thing and send Peaches and Wankie to an elephant sanctuary where they will have space and climate more conducive to good health."

Research and the spate of recent elephant deaths continue to document that elephants die in zoos at half their natural lifespan. The average age at death for captive elephants is 34 years; a natural lifespan for wild elephants is 60-70 years. Recently a zoo-industry trade group (American Zoo and Aquarium Association) promoted a misleading report on captive elephant lifespan that excluded all infant mortality, among other tactics. But independent data continue to show that elephants in captivity die prematurely. Prior to early death, elephants suffer from a range of captivity-induced health problems, including painful joint and foot disease, digestive disorders and tuberculosis, a disease that humans passed on to elephants. 

All three elephants were ailing two years ago when the San Diego Zoo trucked them 2000 miles to Chicago. Their health conditions further declined in Chicago, where the cold winters forced the elephants to be held indoors in a concrete room for months. 

Former San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park elephant keepers endorse the transfer of the elephants to sanctuaries. One of them, Ray Ryan, wrote in December 2003, "I have routinely visited Peaches, Wankie and Tatima since their arrival at the Lincoln Park Zoo. It is my firm belief that these elephants are dying in their new environment, and if not retired to a sanctuary soon, will not last more than a few years at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Compared to what they were used to, these elephants are suffering from the shock of climate change, lack of space, depression and boredom." 

IDA, based in Mill Valley, Calif., was part of a coalition that filed two federal lawsuits to stop the San Diego Zoo from importing the wild African elephants. The group was a vocal opponent of the transfer of the three elephants to Chicago. This year, IDA successfully compelled the San Francisco Zoo to transfer its two surviving elephants to the Performing Animal Welfare Society Sanctuary in California.