Washington Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder Urged to Tackle Elephant Problem at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom

IDA Urges Snyder, Six Flags’ Majority Shareholder, to Bench Elephants Suffering at California Amusement Park, Send to Sanctuary

Auburn, Va.—International animal protection organization In Defense of Animals (IDA) this morning sent a letter to Daniel M. Snyder, owner of the Washington Redskins, urging him to intervene on behalf of the seven elephants confined at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, a Vallejo, Calif. amusement park.

Snyder is the Chairman of the Board for Six Flags, Inc. and the company’s major shareholder. In its letter, IDA asked Snyder to immediately halt all shows in which ailing elephants are forced to perform and to send the pachyderms packing to one of two U.S. elephant sanctuaries.

“The record of Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in managing and caring from the elephants in its charge is egregious,” wrote IDA president Elliot M Katz, DVM, noting that seven elephants have died there since Six Flags took over in 1997. “Elephants at this park have suffered as a direct result of an abusive management style and an outdated exhibit that crams seven elephants into an outdoor yard that appears to be less than an acre in size.”

Katz went on to describe several examples of ailing elephants at the park, including:

  • Tina, who suffered from foot disease so severe that her feet would bleed and ooze pus whenever she stepped on them. When euthanized in 2003, Tina’s autopsy showed not only severe foot disease, but also severe arthritis in all four of her limbs.

  • Misha, who gored a trainer with her tusk in 2003 after being repeatedly attacked by the park’s other elephants. Despite a painful and chronically infected jaw wound, Misha was artificially inseminated, became pregnant, delivered a stillborn calf, and was artificially inseminated again. It appears that this much-traumatized elephant was confined alone for two years after goring the trainer before being shipped off to a Utah zoo in 2005.

  • Liz, who suffers a chronic and recurrent problem with infection on the toe of her left foot. X-ray evidence appears to indicate that the infection has invaded the bone.

  • Elderly, arthritic Taj, who is maintained on high doses of painkillers.

  • Malaika, who experiences severe allergic reactions, including hives and throat constriction that make breathing and swallowing difficult. Like Misha, Malaika is the victim of aggression from other elephants. Eyewitness reports indicate that Malaika was beaten at the park as a young elephant and lived in fear of her trainer.

Both Liz and Taj are used in performances, in which they are forced to stack 600-pound logs with their diseased feet, and to give rides, activities that exacerbate their degenerative conditions. The park’s seven elephants are subjected on a daily basis to a coercive system of management that relies on physical discipline and domination, enforced through the use of a bullhook.

“Unlike football players who have a choice in being subject to harsh physical conditions, the elephants at Six Flags do not. All of the elephants have lived in an abusive and negligent environment and still performed dutifully for your company for years,” Katz’s letter concluded. “They deserve to spend the rest of their lives in a more natural setting that offers the space and conditions elephants need to thrive.”

For more information, please visit www.helpelephants.com.