On July 10, Chico, the oldest bull elephant in captivity in North America died in the Caldwell Zoo in Tyler, Texas. Information is exceedingly sparse: Like so many other elephants in zoos, he was “found unresponsive” in the morning when keepers arrived for work. No one knows how long he had been down or what [...]
Saturday, June 11, is the International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos, when activists around the world will be sending a message that elephants just don’t belong in cramped, unnatural displays that shorten their lives by decades. This year, everyone can help the elephants, no matter where you live, by participating in a virtual [...]
IDA has released the 2010 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants, exposing the hidden suffering of elephants in zoos, where lack of space, unsuitably cold climates and impoverished social groupings condemn Earth’s largest land mammals to lifetimes of deprivation, disease and early death. The list is an SOS for suffering elephants and a [...]
On September 21 Manyula, the only elephant held at El Salvador’s Parque Zoológico Nacional de San Salvador, died at age 59 from kidney failure. She had lived in the zoo for almost her entire life, having been abducted from her family in India as a baby, and died without ever knowing the companionship and comfort [...]
In light of the alarming news that Dondi, an elephant who gave rides at the Southwick’s Zoo in Mendon, Mass., died from tuberculosis, IDA sent an urgent letter to the zoo, demanding the immediate release of her report. According to an article that ran in the Shoreline Times (New Haven, Conn.) on Friday, a necropsy [...]
Sixteen years ago today, Tyke , a 20 year old African elephant “owned” by the notorious Hawthorn Corporation, was killed. On August 20, 1994, she was performing with the Circus International in Hawaii when she killed her trainer and gored her groomer, then bolted from the arena and ran through the city for a half-hour, [...]
Zoos often use “spin” to give their interpretation of an event in order to sway public opinion or maintain a particular image. Spin is exactly what the Toledo Zoo attempted to do after the July 1 attack on keeper Don RedFox by a seven-year-old African elephant named Louie. RedFox was gravely injured in the incident. [...]
History was made in Los Angeles last night. In the biggest circus demonstration the city has ever seen, 300 activists holding graphic signs and colorful banners and wearing elephant costumes and symbolic chains, encircled the Staples Center to protest the opening night of Ringling. Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. The mood was electric as [...]
IDA has two new “Breaking News” items featured on www.HelpElephants.com that just by chance have a common thread (besides the fact they’re about elephants), and that’s the African nation of Zimbabwe. We reported on an elephant named Nosey, who was traumatically torn from her family and shipped to the U.S. before she was even two [...]
This year’s International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos (IDAEZ) was a huge success, featuring events in 34 cities in 7 countries and our first-ever virtual protest that used social networking technology to circulate nearly 10,000 messages about how elephants suffer and die prematurely in zoos.On Saturday, dedicated activists organized and attended demonstrations that [...]