News Briefing Tuesday: Zoo Industry to Receive First-Ever "Report Card" on Treatment of Elephants

In Defense of Animals Presents Progress Report at Association of Zoos and Aquarium's Annual Conference

Milwaukee, Wisc.—In Defense of Animals (IDA), an international animal protection organization that releases an annual "Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants" list, will issue its first-ever "report card" on the zoo industry's treatment of elephants at a press briefing Tuesday, outside the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) annual conference in Milwaukee. IDA will also display signs and posters documenting inhumane zoo conditions and their disastrous effect on elephants' health.

What: News Briefing: IDA releases report card on AZA's treatment of elephants
When: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 11:30 a.m.
Where: Midwest Airlines Center main entrance, corner of 4th and Wisconsin

The report card targets the AZA, an industry trade group responsible for issuing standards of elephant care. The minimal standards allow elephants to be held in tiny, inadequate exhibits; permit physical punishment and allow elephants to be used for rides and in circus-style shows.

"It's wrong for the zoo industry to keep elephants in conditions that are causing them to suffer terribly and die prematurely," says IDA president Elliot Katz, DVM. "This report card should be a wake-up call for zoos: either make the radical changes that elephants need to thrive or get out of the elephant display business altogether."

At least half of elephants in zoos suffer from arthritis and/or foot disease, which are the leading causes of euthanasia for captive elephants. The conditions are a direct result of cramming earth's largest land mammals into tiny zoo exhibits of a few acres or less. Intense confinement prevents elephants from walking and forces them to stand on hard, unyielding surfaces for years on end.

In 2006, Lucy, a 46-year-old African elephant at the Milwaukee Zoo was euthanized after suffering for years from arthritis. Zoo records reveal that Lucy also endured foot problems directly related to spending long winter months locked indoors on persistently wet concrete flooring.

Inability to meet the needs of elephants has prompted 18 major zoos, including San Francisco, Detroit and the Bronx Zoo, to either close or phase out their elephant exhibits. Elephants in zoos are dying far short of their natural lifespan of 60-70 years. Of the 63 elephants who died in AZA-accredited zoos since 2000, more than half failed to reach age 40.

For more information see www.helpelephants.com.