PETA calls for Seattle zoo's elephant exhibit to close in wake of baby Hansa's death

[flamingyouth]

Group Urges Woodland Park Zoo to Transfer Surviving Elephants to Sanctuary

For Immediate Release:
June 11, 2007

Contact:
Lisa Wathne 757-622-7382

Seattle, Wash. -- Following the sudden death of 6-year-old Hansa at Woodland Park Zoo last week, PETA sent an urgent letter to the zoo’s president, Dr. Deborah Jensen, this morning. PETA is urging Jensen to shut down the zoo’s elephant exhibit and send the elephants in the zoo’s charge to a sanctuary.

PETA points out that since 1991, 14 U.S. zoos have closed their elephant exhibits or announced plans to phase them out, citing their inability to meet the significant needs of these complex animals. Life in captivity is killing elephants of all ages. Since 2000, more than half of the 52 elephants who have died at facilities accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums never reached the age of 40. A typical lifespan for elephants in the wild is approximately 70 years.

Captive elephant breeding is notoriously ill-fated, as is illustrated by Woodland Park’s failed breeding program. Hansa’s mother, Chai, has been repeatedly subjected to numerous invasive procedures associated with artificial insemination—four of which have taken place within the past two years—with no result. Chai was reportedly beaten at the Dickerson Park Zoo, where she was sent to breed. Hansa, too, was allegedly struck with a bullhook by a zookeeper when she was less than 2 years old. In November 2005, while Sri—another of Woodland Park’s elephants—was on loan to the Saint Louis Zoo for breeding, her baby died in utero.

"Any exhibit provided by a zoo is miniscule by elephants’ standards and cannot possibly meet their complex physical and psychological needs," says PETA captive exotic animal specialist Lisa Wathne. "We hope that Hansa’s death is a wake-up call for Woodland Park Zoo to retire its remaining elephants to a sanctuary before it’s too late for them too."

PETA is calling on zoo employees to report abuse of animals through PETA’s new whistleblowers’ Web site, ZooInsiders.com, or by calling 1-866-ZOO-TIPS.

For more information, please visit PETA’s Web site SaveWildElephants.com.

PETA’s letter to Woodland Park Zoo President Deborah Jensen follows.

June 11, 2007

Deborah Jensen, President and CEO
Woodland Park Zoo
5000 Phinney Ave. N.
Seattle, WA 98103

Dear Dr. Jensen:

I am writing on behalf of PETA to express my regret over the sad and untimely death of Hansa and to urge Woodland Park Zoo to permanently close the zoo’s elephant exhibit and send Chai, Bamboo, Watoto, and Sri to a sanctuary.


Woodland Park Zoo’s elephant exhibit and breeding program has entailed the upheaval of the elephants’ social structure; a succession of manipulative, highly invasive, and failed pregnancy attempts; and physical abuse.


In 1998, after enduring six years of attempts at artificial insemination, Chai was shipped off to be bred at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Missouri, which ultimately paid a $5,000 fine to settle charges that Chai was beaten while she was there. In the past two years, Chai has been subjected to four more artificial insemination procedures in the zoo’s desperate attempts to produce another baby. In November 2005, while on loan to the Saint Louis Zoo for breeding, Sri’s baby died in utero and, at least one year later, the fetus had not been expelled. At less than 2 years of age, baby Hansa was struck with a bullhook by a zookeeper. Bamboo, who was deemed a misfit at Woodland Park Zoo, has endured a transfer to one zoo and a transfer back to Woodland Park Zoo and is now apparently waiting for another potential zoo home to be located.

At either The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee or the Performing Animal Welfare Society in California, the zoo’s elephants would never be punished with bullhooks and would have the opportunity to roam through hundreds of acres of natural habitat, play in a pond, forage on fresh vegetation, and enjoy full, healthy, and enriching lives in the company of many other elephants.

Since 1991, 14 U.S. zoos have closed their elephant exhibits or announced that they will phase out their elephant exhibits after concluding that they could not adequately provide for the complex needs of elephants. The Woodland Park Zoo can become an important part of this progressive trend within the zoo community, which must hold itself accountable for the animals in its care and consider their welfare a priority—even if it means retiring these animals to a more capable facility.

Woodland Park Zoo’s elephant program has caused enough suffering. It’s time for the zoo to put the welfare of these animals above all else by sending them to a sanctuary that more closely resembles their environment in the wild.

Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter. I can be reached at 757-622-7382.


Sincerely,
Lisa Wathne, Captive Exotic Animal Specialist

http://www.peta.org/mc/NewsItem.asp?id=9911