In Defense of Animals mourns the loss of Romani’s calf. The baby’s death -- and the resulting jeopardy in which Romani’s life has been placed -- are tragedies that no one wants to see happen. Unfortunately, these developments are the predictable outcome of the forced breeding of captive elephants.

Unnatural zoo conditions directly cause these outcomes. At Rosamond Gifford Zoo, these include chaining elephants all night during the winter, confining elephants on concrete and chaining mother elephants by three or four legs during labor and delivery. Laboring elephants are also isolated from other elephants, even though wild elephant mothers rely on female herd members to assist in birthing and raising their young.

The tragedies keep happening:

• Of eight recorded births at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, only three elephants are still alive.
• In the last five years, there have been at least 13 elephant stillbirths and other birth complications in U.S. zoos, resulting in 13 dead babies and three dead mothers.
• Romani is the third U.S. zoo elephant in the last seven months to lose her calf in utero. Sri at the St. Louis Zoo still carries a dead fetus in her womb seven months after the baby died. Genny C at Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester survived the loss of her baby in utero when the fetus was removed through surgery.
• The in utero deaths of calves claimed the lives of three other elephants in recent years: Ibala, a 26-year-old African elephant at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom; Tika a 24-year old African elephant at Six Flags Marine World-Vallejo; and Ruby, a 25-year-old Asian elephant at Phoenix Zoo.

Elephant experts believe that lack of exercise, obesity, and the unnatural conditions of captivity, such as artificial insemination and lack of social support, contribute to the high rate of stillbirths, birth complications and infant mortality for elephants in zoos.

It is time for the zoo industry to face reality. Current zoo conditions do not meet the needs of elephants and elephants are suffering and dying as a result. Continuing to breed elephants under these conditions constitutes reckless endangerment of the lives of these magnificent animals.

For more information see www.helpelephants.com.