Eyewitness to Elephant Abuse at Vallejo Amusement Park to Make Personal Plea to Spare City-“Owned” Pachyderms

Former Caretaker Will Ask the City to Send Elephants to a Sanctuary, Not Sell Them to Six Flags

Vallejo, Calif.—The former caretaker of four city-“owned” elephants at the Six Flags Discovery Kingdom amusement park will be in Vallejo on Monday to make a personal plea for the animals’ future, In Defense of Animals (IDA) announced today.

Barbara Anderson, who worked as a trainer at the amusement park in the 1990s, has traveled from Tennessee to Vallejo in order to meet with officials at Vallejo City Hall on Monday to ask that the elephants be exempted from a pending sale to Six Flags and sent to a sanctuary instead. Representatives from IDA and the Marin Humane Society will join her. Anderson will be available for media interviews on Monday. (Please contact IDA to arrange an interview time.)

While working at the park, Anderson cared for elephants currently “owned” by the City of Vallejo, Taj, Liz, Malaika and Tava. She will bring eyewitness testimony of the beatings and abuse to which these and other elephants have been subjected at the park.

In a written a statement, Anderson has detailed the amusement park’s history of abuse. At least one employee named in her statement still works at Six Flags, and another only recently left the company. Anderson relates chilling incidents in which the elephants, including Malaika, were beaten with bullhooks (steel rods with sharp, pointed hooks at the end), struck between the eyes and on the body. In one case, a young male elephant was tortured with the illegal use of electric shock. She also speaks passionately about the cruelty and abuse inherent in the elephant training method that Six Flags employs.

Just last week, IDA delivered an official legal notice that the care and treatment of endangered elephants at Six Flags violates the federal Endangered Species Act and that the sale of the city-“owned” endangered elephants by Vallejo to Six Flags would therefore be illegal as well.

IDA has prepared a detailed report of elephant suffering and abuse at the park, including eight elephant deaths at the park in 12 years. The victims include five elephants who were euthanized after suffering from painful and crippling arthritis and/or foot disease. Both conditions are related to confinement in the inadequate and unnatural amusement park environment.

“The elephants at Six Flags have suffered enough,” said IDA president Elliot M. Katz, DVM. “We are hopeful that the City of Vallejo will uphold its responsibility to these elephants by sending them to a natural habitat sanctuary instead of condemning them to years more of stress, illness and abuse in the middle of an amusement park.”

For more information please visit www.helpelephantsinzoos.org.

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