Date
November 27, 2002
Contact
Suzanne Roy, 415/898-2720
Elliot Katz, DVM, 415/388-9641 x 26
In Defense of Animals
131 Camino Alto
Mill Valley
CA 94941
IDA is an international, California-based animal advocacy organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
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Six Pachyderm Deaths in Six Years Prompt Animal Group to Demand Closure of Park's Elephant Exhibit and Retirement of Survivors to Sanctuaries
Vallejo, CA (November 27, 2002) . . .The death of Tika, a 24-year old elephant who was euthanized Monday at Six Flags Marine World, brings the Vallejo amusement park’s death toll to six elephants in six years, In Defense of Animals (IDA) said today. The group expressed sadness and outrage at the death of Tika, who suffered from a severe infection after carrying a dead fetus in her womb for nearly two months, and called for the roller coaster theme park to stop breeding and displaying elephants.
"It’s time for Marine World to get out of the elephant business," said IDA Program Director Suzanne Roy. "Tika’s death is just the latest in a long string of elephant tragedies that starkly demonstrate the dangers of elephant captivity."
"Marine World has become an elephant death trap," said Roy. "Its continued efforts to breed elephants in spite of its abysmal track record demonstrates the length to which this amusement park will go to replenish its for-profit elephant attraction."
On October 7, 2002, Tika’s baby died during labor. She was preceded in death by Kala, a 2-year old male elephant who succumbed to a viral infection less than six months after being shipped to Marine World from the Dickerson Park Zoo in Missouri. Elephant advocates had warned the park against separating Kala from his mother at such an early age. In the wild, elephants nurse for five years, and the males do not leave their mothers until they are 10 or 15 years old.
The park also euthanized three elephants in 1996, 1998 and 1999. Last month the park surrendered permits to import two baby Asian elephants from India after IDA and other animal protection organizations filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the import.
IDA scoffed at the park’s contention that it is advancing the cause of elephants in the wild by trying to breed them in captivity.
"Marine World’s breeding efforts have nothing to do with elephant conservation, and everything to do with maximizing amusement park profits," Roy observed, noting that loss of habitat and poaching, not inability to breed, are forcing wild Asian elephants to the brink of extinction.
Roy predicted that with this latest death, Marine World would step up efforts to obtain new elephants for its display. IDA vowed to stop that as part of its campaign to close the park’s elephant exhibit and retire the surviving pachyderms to sanctuaries.