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Contact: Toni Frohoff, Ph.D., toni@idausa.org, (805) 836-0496

NY Zoos Named and Shamed in Worst Zoo List

IMAGES: http://bit.ly/22WnJl0

Bronx and Buffalo, NY (Jan 12, 2016) – International animal protection organization, In Defense of Animals, today released its annual list of the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America, with two New York zoos featuring on the dishonorable list. Buffalo Zoo has scooped the shameful dishonor of being the #9 worst, and the Bronx Zoo entering the Hall of Shame, reserved for only the very worst zoos with repeat offenses.

Now in its twelfth year, In Defense of Animals’ respected list exposes the cruelty behind keeping the Earth’s largest land mammal captive in small, inadequate zoo exhibits that cause a lifetime of misery and lead to premature death.

“It is shocking that a progressive state like New York has not one but two of the worst zoos for elephants in North America. Buffalo’s exhibit is a frigid fiasco, and the Bronx Zoo’s plans to keep Happy in solitary confinement until she dies are utterly vile” said In Defense of Animals President, Dr. Marilyn Kroplick. “We call on the Bronx and Buffalo Zoos to release these elephants from their desperate lives to a sanctuary where they can be with her own kind in a much more suitable environment.”

Toni Frohoff, Ph.D., Elephant Scientist for In Defense of Animals said, “Evidence shows that elephants are not thriving or self-sustaining in zoos. Urgent action must be taken to stop greedy corporations from plundering elephants from the wild so they can restock elephants dying out in zoo displays faster than they can reproduce. If you want to help protect elephants, don’t visit zoos and instead help support real conservation efforts that keep animals in the wild where they belong.”

THE BRONX ZOO

This year’s Hall of Shame dishonor goes to the Bronx Zoo which has kept an Asian elephant, ironically named Happy, in solitary confinement for almost a decade. Perhaps more ironic is that Happy’s horrific life is her ‘reward’ for her significant contributions to science. In 2005, she that proved that an elephant could recognize herself in a mirror during a research experiment. Self-awareness was a cognitive characteristic previously attributed only to humans and a handful of other species, until her now often-cited achievement in this area. Despite this, the Wildlife Conservation Society, the owners of the Bronx Zoo, and the researchers, have abandoned Happy in an outdated exhibit, leaving her to rot in loneliness and the cold – with only the distant memory of her own mirrored reflection for companionship.

In the most tragic of ironies, now that Happy has proven she’s self aware, she is being denied the most basic and essential of psychological needs for elephants – any reasonable resemblance of elephant companionship. The Bronx Zoo already announced it will eventually close this outdated exhibit upon the deaths of the elephants. In Defense of Animals is calling for the Bronx Zoo to give this elephant her ‘Happy’ ending by relocating her to a sanctuary.

BUFFALO ZOO

Frozen in time, the Buffalo Zoo continues to keep Asian elephant captives Jothi and Surapa inside the tiny cage they call a barn for yet another brutal Buffalo winter, where they will spend nearly all their time. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) standards require that elephants who are exposed to temperatures below 40°F (5°C) for longer than 60-minute intervals be monitored hourly to assess the potential for hypothermia. Over three consecutive winters (2012-2015), daytime maximum temperatures in January and February went above 40 degrees only 30 out of 177 days. Following AZA criteria of no exposure below 40 degrees over an hour, without taking extensive counter-measures, means the elephants would spend only 17% of January and February having any meaningful outdoor time. The short walks in winter, often in snow, are like “yard time” in human prisons. Further, by holding just two elephants, the zoo is failing to meet the low-bar social standards of the AZA that require a minimum of three elephants.

Donations were wasted on remodeling the small “Elephant House” because the money was used to install barriers dividing the claimed 1,850 interior square feet into much smaller enclosures, instead of moving Jothi and Surapa to a warm-weather sanctuary where they would live infinitely better lives. Zoo reps failed to mention how small and ecologically barren the building really is – and that it does not even meet the elephants’ basic needs as evidenced by their stereotypic and other stress-related behaviors indicating their suffering and inability to cope in their cramped and cold environment.

Buffalo Zoo mis-educates the public into believing elephants celebrate Halloween, are innately meant to paint on glass and canvas, carry logs, and perform all sorts of other unnatural behaviors highlighted in Buffalo Zoo’s marketing. It’s time for the Buffalo Zoo to thaw out this shameful elephant freezer and warm up to sending them to a sanctuary.

10 WORST ZOOS:

1 Dallas Zoo, Tex., Henry Doorly Zoo, Neb., and Sedgwick County Zoo, Kan.
2 Natural Bridge Zoo, Vir.
3 Oklahoma City Zoo, Okla.
4 Wildlife Safari, Ore.
5 Buttonwood Park Zoo, Mass.
6 San Antonio Zoo, Tex.
7 Oregon Zoo, Ore.
8 Monterey Zoo, Calif.
9 Buffalo Zoo, N.Y.
10 Southwick’s Zoo, Mass.

HALL OF SHAME
Bronx Zoo, NY

DISHONORABLE MENTION
Edmonton Zoo, Alberta, Canada

For more information, please visit: http://www.idausa.org/2015tenworstzoos

NOTES

Images of the elephants: http://bit.ly/22WnJl0

Closed or closing elephant exhibits: http://www.idausa.org/pdfs/IDA_Zoos_closedorplantocloseexhibits_12_2015.pdf

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In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization located in San Rafael, Calif. dedicated to protecting animals’ rights, welfare, and habitats through education, outreach, and our hands-on rescue facilities in India, Africa, and rural Mississippi.

IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS • 3010 KERNER BLVD. • SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901 • 415-448-0048