Elephant at Tennessee zoo crushes trainer to death

[RamboLiberal]

Source: MSNBC/Reuters

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — An 8,000-pound elephant at a Tennessee zoo backed a trainer into a wall and crushed her to death, and the zoo said on Saturday it had temporarily closed its elephant exhibit.

"It's a difficult day, but our staff is very professional and they are carrying on with their duties today," said Tina Rolen, assistant director of marketing at the Knoxville, Tennessee zoo. She said the review of Friday's tragedy is continuing.

Stephanie James, 33, was fatally injured Friday while performing routine chores involving Edie, a 26-year-old, 8,000 to 8,500-pound elephant who is 8 and a half feet tall at the shoulder.

"At this point in time we don't believe it to be a malicious act or an aggressive act on Edie's part, but the review is ongoing to determine what happened in the barn," Rolen said.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/41087985/ns/us_news-life/

---

Shame. Sounds like a tragic accident.

[niyad]

1. a very sad accident, but then, I truly hate animal acts in zoos and circuses

[petronius]

2. Really sad, and probably an unpleasant way to go

I would have thought, though, that there had been enough of these over the years that zoos would have (re)designed their barns to avoid putting trainers between elephants and walls...

[WellsStreetHell]

3. just close all the zoos

Haven't humans fucked up the world enough? Any person who needs to gawk at animals at zoos should have to live in one themselves.

[Pancho Sanza]

6. It's very much beginning to appear that zoos are the only possible way to keep some species

extant...if that's true the choice is between the zoo and letting some just to go extinct. Neither is a happy choice but without some genuine alternative, they're all we have, sadly.

It will probably end up, though, that humans will as you say continue to fuck up the world and after gutting the biodiversity "below" us will end up overpopulating them(our)selves into oblivion, after which time the planet will
re-energize itself and start the cycle of life over....or maybe not. :shrug:
edit to fix typo, sorry

[d_r]

8. yes

I think zoos of some form or another will be the only way some species survive

[Atypical Liberal]

7. Close all the zoos?

Zoos are the only way most people, in this country anyway, get to actually see and experience these animals and internalize the experience of their very existence.

I don't like the idea of prisons for animals, either, but without this direct tangible availability I suspect most of these animals would be nothing more to a lot of people but something they read about in a book along with dinosaurs.

[Kali]

11. a lot of zoos do important conservation work

they function as an ark as it were
preserving and breeding endangered animals until such time they might be reintroduced to safe habitat

[RamboLiberal]

18. +1 I would say almost all the elephants & other animals

in the reputable and good zoos are products of breeding programs within the zoos.

They IMHO do perform an important function in informing and letting people view and learn about the magnificent animals of this planet.

[Uben]

4. Same thing happened here 20 yrs ago....

...in our small town zoo. I personally knew the man killed. I think one has to expect this to happen to avoid it. People get too comfortable working around these huge animals not taking into account a simple mistep by the animal can kill them.

[RamboLiberal]

17. Trainer at Pittsburgh Zoo was killed several years ago

When walking the animals around zoo before opening.

[toopers]

5. Hopefully, the elephant will be sent to the Elephant Sanctuary . . .

it would not be a long trip. http://www.elephants.com/

[blaze]

9. I went straight to that site when I read this story

and got stuck (am still stuck) watching all their Youtube videos. In particular, I was looking for a video I saw some years ago on the reunion of Shirley and Jenny. 20 or more years previously, they had been in a circus together and their reunion at the sanctuary was caught on tape. I can't find it now, dang it.

[Ptah]

14. This might be what you are looking for:

Nature (PBS) - Shirley the Elephant (Part 1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzEUayHqrRc

Nature (PBS) - Shirley the Elephant (Part 2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXKxgLvIS6Y

[Duppers]

12. I donate money to them

The stories there are amazing too.

Elephants bond among themselves and with other animals for life. The YouTube about the dog and the elephant there is most touching.

[SquireJons]

10. Elephants Are Scary Up Close

Elephants are some of the most amazing creatures on earth, but up close they're pretty damn scary. I did some work at a small zoo about 25 years ago, and got a "back room tour" of the facility. That let me go into the closed areas where the trainers and zoo staff have access. When we went to the elephant compound I was inside where they treat and feed the elephants, but there were still bars between me and the elephants. One of them got curious and came close to where I was, right up against the bars and reached out it's trunk toward me. First of all, this animal was huge, and it's trunk was bigger than anything that ever came near me. Second, an elephants trunk is pretty much disgusting. Think of it as a combination of a hydraulic arm and a runny nose. They are constantly dripping something while exploring their environment with the thing. I was acutely aware at the time, that if this animal wanted to, it could have killed me in an instant, and there was nothing the zoo staff could have done about it. I have no desire to be very close to one these days.

[Pancho Sanza]

16. I refuse to believe that a sane elephant (they can go crazy just like humans) would

deliberately harm a person. The southeast Asians have partnered with them for hundreds of years and rarely encounter any serious problems, if what I was told in Thailand was true...I have no reason to doubt them. There are many other animals (and reptiles or fish) that could kill you in an instant as well, really...including the human variety.

A grown elephant weighs as much as an automobile and can easily damage a person just as a Chevy can with the same
amount of obliviousness. All that said, I do NOT doubt an elephant (which we know never forgets) might well get really pissed off and squish someone who has mistreated him/her with not much more compunction that a person might step on a mouse. Having seen how they are treated in some 'zoos', I can't say I would blame them.

[saras]

19. Depends on your definition of 'sane'

Reasonably well-behaved elephants (i.e. circus actors) have remembered abusive trainers and killed them DECADES after last seeing them.

Vengeful, perhaps, but not insane.

Elephants are smarter and more 'cultured' than dogs. I wouldn't underestimate them.

[Blandocyte]

13. Wild animals should stay wild. Zoos are depressing.

Let them live free.

[Pancho Sanza]

15. Sure, but ........where? In the last 100 years, almost 90% of their "wild" habitat has been taken

for agriculture and other human enterprises...where exactly are they going to do that? (live 'free')?

Even one of the last true wild zones in Africa, the Serengeti, is facing a huge threat...a road bisecting the region that will create enormous numbers of roadkill and give poachers a fast in-and-out route to kill all sorts of endangered species...all for the promise of $$$$$$$$$ when Tanzania and Kenya can sell their minerals.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/tanzania/7824876/New-road-threatens-Africas-wonder-of-the-world-wildebeest-migration.html

[wordpix]

21. sadly +10000

[pottersvilleusa]

20. I hope they don't off the poor elephant

Just for being an elephant.

Zoos should be outlawed.