DEATH OF ELEPHANT CALF PROMPTS CALL TO END ELEPHANT BREEDING AT SENECA PARK ZOO

Mill Valley, Calif. - Two former zoo professionals and the animal protection group In Defense of Animals (IDA) called upon Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks today to ban elephant breeding at the Seneca Park Zoo in Rochester, N.Y. in response to the in utero death of an elephant calf at the zoo last week.

In a letter to Ms. Brooks, Mel Richardson, a zoo and wildlife veterinarian with 30 years experience working with elephants, Les Schobert, the former General Curator of the North Carolina Zoo and the Los Angeles Zoo, and Elliot Katz, veterinarian and president and founder of IDA, warn that inadequate and artificial zoo conditions, including lack of space for vital movement and exercise, contribute to infant morality and infertility and endanger maternal health.

The baby of Genny C, a 28-year-old African elephant at Seneca Park Zoo died in utero last Tuesday. Genny C, who was artificially inseminated, is now carrying the dead fetus. She is the second elephant in the last three months to face this life-threatening condition. Sri, a 25-year-old Asian elephant at St. Louis Zoo still carries her fetus, which died in utero last November.

"If history is a guide, the Seneca Park Zoo's third unsuccessful effort to breed Genny C may cost this 28-year old elephant her life," the letter states. "Breeding elephants under current zoo conditions endangers their lives. To continue these attempts is simply irresponsible, unjustified and inhumane."

The in utero deaths of calves claimed the lives of three other elephants in recent years: Ibala, a 26-year-old African elephant at Disney World's Animal Kingdom, Tika a 24-year old African elephant at Six Flags Marine World-Vallejo, and Ruby, a 25-year-old Asian elephant at Phoenix Zoo.

Elephant experts believe that lack of exercise and physical fitness, obesity, and unnatural conditions such as artificial insemination and lack of social support, contribute to elephants' inability to successfully birth calves.

Stillbirths are rare in wild African elephants. In the population of elephants living in the Amboseli National Park in Kenya, perhaps the world's best studied and documented population of elephants, there have only been five documented still births in over 1500 known births. No mothers are known to have perished with dead infants in their womb, as very few otherwise healthy mothers have been found dead.

The infant mortality rate for elephants in zoos is more than twice that of the wild Amboseli elephants. And, while wild elephants reproduce into their 50's, elephants in zoos are commonly infertile by the time they are 35.

"Elephants like Genny C are held in intense confinement, artificially inseminated, forced to birth and parent without elder females to guide them as they would in the wild, and chained during labor and delivery so that they cannot freely move," the letter continued. "Is it any wonder that tragedy results from these unnatural and inhumane conditions?"

The Seneca Park's Zoos planned expansion of its elephant yard to one-half acre is completely inadequate to meet the needs of African elephants, who in the wild have home ranges of 120 square miles and walk 5-12 miles a day or more, the experts said. In addition, New York's cold climate is inappropriate for elephants, who must frequently be confined indoors for long stretches in the winter months.

The letter concluded with a plea to Monroe County to follow the lead of the Detroit Zoo, which last year closed its elephant exhibit and sent its elephants to a sanctuary after determining that it had neither the space nor the climate to provide an adequate environment for elephants. Last week, the Bronx Zoo announced that it would phase out its elephant exhibit and focus its resources instead on conserving elephants in the wild.

Read Seneca Park breeding moratorium letter (PDF)

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