Date
September 2, 2006
Contact
Catherine Doyle
(323) 301-5730
Marilie Sage
(915) 526-3697
(915) 351-2885
In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner Blvd
San Rafael
CA 94901
IDA is an international, California-based animal advocacy organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
Firing of Zoo Employee Will Not End Elephant Suffering
Lack of Space, Health Problems Plague El Paso Zoo Elephants
El Paso—In Defense of Animals (IDA) charges that the firing of an El Paso Zoo employee, who allegedly stuck one of the elephants, will not end the suffering of the Zoo’s elephants, Juno and Savannah. This is the second known incident of elephant abuse at El Paso Zoo. The group claims the recent event represents just one of the many problems with the Zoo’s elephant program, and has renewed its call to close the elephant exhibit and send the elephants to a sanctuary.
“The two elephants at El Paso Zoo are suffering daily and firing one person won’t change that,” says Les Schobert, a former curator at Los Angeles Zoo and North Carolina Zoo. “Elephants are big animals who need big spaces, and unless El Paso Zoo can provide the space and natural conditions Juno and Savannah need, it’s wrong to keep those elephants there.”
El Paso Zoo provides less than one acre for the elephants, failing to give them the large space needed for exercise that is critical to maintaining health and well-being. Elephants are biologically designed for almost constant movement, with natural home ranges of 200 square miles or more, and activity patterns that include walking miles a day on soft, varied terrain.
Lack of space for exercise and hard, unyielding surfaces like concrete and compacted dirt can cause elephants to develop often-lethal arthritis and foot disease. Zoo medical records for Juno and Savannah document both foot problems and arthritis. Mona, the popular elephant who died in 2001, suffered from arthritis so severe she likely was in acute pain for years before her death. Juno and Savannah also display abnormal, repetitive swaying and rocking behaviors.
El Paso Zoo also fails to meet the elephants’ important social needs. Elephants are highly intelligent and in the wild lead complex social lives, living in large, multi-generational families that vary in number from between six to 40 elephants. Great space is required to replicate even the smaller family units.
Over a year ago, the El Paso City Council voted to improve the elephants’ enclosure instead of sending the animals to a spacious, natural-habitat elephant sanctuary. A plan was proposed to add more space to the elephant exhibit, costing $2.5 million and increasing the elephant exhibit from less than an acre to just 1.1 acres, but a decision was deferred months ago. No action has been taken since.
Nine U.S. zoos have shut down their elephant exhibits, most recently in Detroit and San Francisco. More zoos have announced plans to close or phase out their exhibits, including Philadelphia Zoo, Santa Barbara Zoo (Calif.), and the Bronx Zoo in New York.
For more information, please visit www.helpelephants.com.