IDA, Local Groups to Blast Woodland Park Zoo's Imminent Plan to Breed Hansa's Mother, Despite Risk of Deadly Elephant Virus

At Tuesday Press Conference, IDA Will Release Report Detailing Zoo Industry Irresponsibility in Spreading Elephant Herpes Virus

Seattle, Wash.—At a press conference Tuesday, In Defense of Animals (IDA), Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, and the Northwest Animal Rights Network will release documentation indicating that, next month, the Woodland Park Zoo intends to artificially inseminate Chai, mother of a six-year-old elephant who died from a fatal herpes infection this summer. At the press conference, IDA will also release a critical report exposing how U.S. zoos have continued to indiscriminately breed elephants and transfer them between facilities despite the known risks of spreading the deadly Elephant Endotheliotropic Herpesvirus (EEHV). (Read the report.) This weekend, the virus claimed the life of yet another young elephant, a 16-month-old elephant named Nisha, at Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri.

WHAT: Press conference exposing Woodland Park Zoo plans to breed Chai despite high risk of deadly herpes virus infection.
WHEN: Tuesday, December 4, 2007, 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Phinney Ridge Community Center (six blocks north of the Zoo)
Room 1, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle

"Woodland Park Zoo is well aware of the high risk that Chai's offspring will be infected by this deadly virus," said IDA Elephant Specialist Catherine Doyle, who will attend the press conference with representatives from NARN and Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants. "It is grossly irresponsible for the zoo to risk subjecting another young elephant to this fatal disease and put Chai through the anguish of watching another baby die a miserable death."

The Zoo has applied to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for an extension of its permit to import semen from a male elephant at African Lion Safari in Canada. Two elephants have died from the elephant herpesvirus at that facility.

IDA's report documents that the deadly virus has an 85 percent mortality rate and has caused at least 20 percent of the deaths of elephants in U.S. zoos over the past 25 years. The report identifies over a dozen zoos – including Woodland Park Zoo – where there is high risk for infection with the virus.

The report says that facilities such as Woodland Park Zoo continue to indiscriminately breed elephants and transfer them between facilities. A 2001 study of EEHV transmission, published in the zoo industry's peer-reviewed, scientific publication, Zoo Biology, warned that "movement of specimens between institutions, such as those cooperating in an AZA SSP [Association of Zoos and Aquariums Species Survival Program], poses substantial risks of [EEHV] disease transmission."

IDA will conclude the press conference demanding a halt to the breeding of Asian elephants and requesting severe restrictions on the transfer of elephants between facilities, at least until more is known about the virus and there is a way to stop the spread of this fatal disease. Following the press conference, the groups will address the Woodland Park Zoo Board at its monthly meeting at the Zoo at 4:00 p.m.

For more information on IDA's campaign to help elephants in zoos, visit www.helpelephants.com.