Elephants die faster than they can reproduce in zoos. In desperation to increase their population of elephants, zoos have resorted to stealing sperm from elephants in the wild. 

Operation Frozen Jumbo 3 is underway in Kruger National Park, South Africa. It’s a collaboration with zoo organizations around the world, expanding on a sperm extraction procedure dubbed “Sperminator.” 

Freezing sperm to inseminate female elephants has been fraught with failure in the wild and in captivity. Now this dreadfully cruel and inefficient process has been refined and is able to get more pregnancies from fewer invasive procedures. However, what is the cost of this success for the elephants?

"Forcing captive and wild male elephants into involuntary sperm extraction, sometimes via chemical immobilization, and then coercively inseminating female elephants without their choice of partner, is rape. These violations, hidden behind the guise of conservation, are a trespass on personal autonomy and remove all choice and control over an individual's outcomes or mates."

— Les O'Brien, Elephant Consultant and former Zoo Elephant Keeper

It is a gruesome operation for the elephants. As reported in the Boston Globe: "First, the vet inserts a pump into the elephant's rectum and fills the intestines with an enormous quantity of water — to create space that makes an ultrasound exam possible. Next, he inserts an electric stimulation device into the animal's rectum to initiate orgasms to produce sperm." 

After the unconscious elephant's tail, tusks, penis, and testes are measured, the vets collect the blood and DNA and finally inject him with the antidote to wake him. Many elephants have been subjected to this extraction in the wild and captivity with little success.

"Elephants, when protected in their natural home-range habitats, live active lives and fulfill crucial ecological roles as keystone species, ecosystem engineers, and seed dispersers – contributions obstructed by human interference and forced imprisonment. In their countries of origin, natural environments where elephants are well-protected have witnessed a rise in their wild numbers, free from artificial insemination (AI) and other human intervention."

— Les O'Brien, Elephant Consultant and former Zoo Elephant Keeper

At In Defense of Animals, we believe we should leave wild animals alone in the one place where they can genuinely live wild and free. Instead, zoos are tampering with nature, creating unnecessary trauma for these majestic elephants and populating zoos with more elephants who will live out deprived lives in captivity. Disturbingly, research needs to be done into how much this invasion into wild herds disrupts elephant societies.

"If captive zoo environments were truly the utopias advertised by zoos, the need for artificial insemination (AI) would be non-existent. Strikingly, behaviors such as infanticide, fratricide, the inability to reproduce, and stereotypies, to name but a few, observed exclusively in captive elephants, are absent with free-ranging elephants. AI exacerbates the suffering of elephants and will only add to the species decline, not save it."

— Les O'Brien, Elephant Consultant and former Zoo Elephant Keeper 

You can help to free one captive elephant to a sanctuary, where he will never be forced to endure any more invasive sperm extraction procedures. Please take action now to free Billy from the Los Angeles Zoo.

Donations to support our work to free captive elephants are also needed and very much appreciated.