Elephant Statement: A Message from the Executive Director

June 28, 2005

In 2003 the Zoological Society of San Diego, in collaboration with the Lowry Park Zoological Garden, took a leadership role, translocating a group of elephants from Swaziland to the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park and the Lowry Park Zoo in order to prevent them from being killed. At that time a group of animal rights organizations, organizations who oppose zoos, attempted to block the elephant move through legal action. In federal court, spokespeople for these groups indicated that they felt that the elephants would be better off dead than in zoos. The Zoological Society felt that it was important to save these elephants, and despite protests and letter writing campaigns, successfully rescued the elephant herd just weeks before they were scheduled to be culled.

In the last two years, the Zoological Society has worked with the government of Swaziland to set aside more park space for elephants, and we have witnessed the birth of a calf to the Swazi herd at the Wild Animal Park. While we and our conservation partners continued to work progressively towards efforts that will help to conserve elephants both in the wild and in zoological settings, these animal rights groups have continued to criticize the efforts of accredited zoos. Although it takes planning and effort to take positive action, criticizing the efforts of others is something that can be accomplished by simply waiting for unfortunate incidents to occur.

In November an elephant named "Tatima" was euthanized after a long battle against a bone cancer-like infection. In January, "Peaches," the oldest African elephant in zoos, passed away at the extreme age (for elephants) of 55. Unfortunately “Wankie” died in April: preliminary necropsy results indicate that she had the same rare infection seen in Tatima; however, a full investigation of the cause of her death is expected to take many weeks. All three elephants had spent most of their lives together at the Wild Animal Park. All three elephants were moved to the Lincoln Park Zoo’s state-of-the-art $23 million African habitat two years ago. All three were loved by the animal care staff who worked with them over the years.

Instead of sharing our grief over the loss of these three animals, the critics (the same animal rights groups who did not want to save the Swazi elephants) are using their deaths to promote their agenda against zoos. These groups have launched a political campaign demanding that zoo elephants be removed from zoos and moved to unaccredited private sanctuaries.

As two of the best zoological organizations in the world, the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park are proud to say that they maintain the high level of animal care, veterinary care, employee experience, education, and conservation programs which place them among the elite zoos that have achieved accreditation by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association. We feel it is important that accredited zoos continue to work with elephants both in the wild and in zoological settings; and it is important for children to experience the wonder of these incredible animals in zoos that have qualified for accreditation rather than in private organizations that do not have education and conservation programs.

At the beginning, even the Zoological Society’s groundbreaking and successful work with California condors and giant pandas had detractors but we continued to move forward to conserve these species with the support of people like you who care about animals.

Sincerely,
Douglas G. Myers
Executive Director