The Elephant Sanctuary, Hohenwald, Tennessee

Zoo officials announced the decision Friday after a private, 90-minute meeting with a founder of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, which is taking the 33-year-old Tina without any money changing hands.

Seven other Asian elephants already live at the only natural habitat refuge in the U.S. for sick and elderly elephants.

Because of a recent land purchase, the sanctuary will soon encompass almost 1,100 hectares -- a landscape of pasture, woodlands and spring-fed ponds almost three times as large as Stanley Park. In winter, the pachyderms can stay warm in a heated, elephant-sized barn.

Carol Buckley, the sanctuary's co-founder and executive director, said a legal agreement between the zoo and the sanctuary will make Tina a permanent resident of the sanctuary.

And Buckley expects Tina will quickly recover from the chronic foot problems that currently plague her.

"She could live 70 years and I have no reason to believe she won't," Buckley said in an interview.

Animals rights groups campaigning for better living conditions for Tina had planned to demonstrate today at the Aldergrove-area zoo, but now they're celebrating, not protesting.

After the zoo announced its acceptance of the sanctuary's offer to take Tina, representatives of Friends of Tina, Zoocheck Canada and the Vancouver Humane Society invited a zoo representative to join their previously planned news conference in Vancouver and popped the cork on a bottle of champagne.

Jamie Dorgan, the zoo's animal care manager, said the elephant's potential market value was not a factor in the zoo's decision to send Tina to Tennessee.

"The issue was never how much Tina was worth and how much we could get for her," Dorgan told journalists. "This was the best possible decision, as far as Tina's long-term health and well-being goes."

He also said sanctuary staff are more familiar with the kind of foot problems Tina has. And he said the animal will have far more space in Tennessee

"Overall, there are a lot of factors that make it a better home for Tina at this point in her life."

The sanctuary plans to transport Tina in a custom-built semi-trailer truck that was donated by United Parcel Services. The three-day highway trip will cost about $20,000 US. Once again, the sanctuary will pay the bill.

Jean Robillard, a Canadian Wildlife Service official in Ottawa who administers export and import permits for endangered species, said there should be no legal barriers that would prevent captive-born Tina from going to the U.S.

Buckley said she hopes Tina will be trucked to the sanctuary before the end of June, before the weather gets too hot.

Buckley said the elephant will probably recover from her foot condition in six months to a year. The foot problem is caused by the continual bruising of the elephant's nail against the cuticle, leading to an abscess that never heals -- a chronic foot problem that Buckley said occurs when elephants walk on a hard surface.

"We've brought in elephants to the sanctuary which had the exact same condition and the recovery time has been six months," she said.

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Elephant may pack trunk for Tennessee

KnoxNews
URL:http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2001263,00.html
By Associated Press
May 31, 2003

VANCOUVER, British Columbia - An ailing Asian elephant named Tina won't be going to the Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario and might be sent to a sanctuary in Tennessee after animal welfare groups criticized the proposal.

The Greater Vancouver Zoo announced earlier this week that Tina would be transferred to the zoo east of Toronto.

But Michael Hackenberger, co-owner and director of the Ontario facility, withdrew his offer to take Tina because of the outcry, which he termed "slander and lies.

"It's not the Canadian way and I'm not going to do it," he said.

John Lee, manager of the Aldergrove zoo, said he was concerned about claims Tina would be used for entertainment at Bowmanville and said that the elephant, who suffers from chronic foot problems, could be sent to the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., instead.

"I have provided all the information they need," said Carol Buckley, director of the Tennessee sanctuary. "I don't see any reason why they wouldn't say yes."

With Bowmanville out of the running, Lee said the zoo has no alternatives to the Tennessee Sanctuary."If the conditions are met, we are going to send her there," he said.

On Wednesday, Hackenberger said he intended to use Tina in amusement rides and educational shows.

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Tina the Elephant

By ROD MICKLEBURGH
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
May 31, 2003

Vancouver - Forget SARS. Forget mad-cow disease. Forget the West Nile virus.

Here in laid-back Vancouver, the only story anyone seems to care about is the gripping saga of Tina the Elephant.

The pachyderm potboiler, complete with alleged villains and warm-hearted heroes, has been leading TV newscasts and headlining local newspapers for days.And best of all, there is now a happy ending. Tina, almost always referred to as "the ailing Asian elephant," is headed to a blissful place, far from whips, zoos and circuses, where lucky, aging female elephants get to spend their last lumbering days on earth: Hohenwald, Tennessee.

"This is a great day for Tina, a great day for elephants," said Carol Buckley, executive director of The Elephant Sanctuary, the continent's only haven for "sick, old and needy elephants."

Yesterday's announcement of a home for Tina in the state where Davy Crockett "kilt him a b'ar when he was only three" capped an intense two-week fight by local animal-rights activists to ensure a proper placing for the affectionate 9,000-pounder.

But no one was happier than employees at the Greater Vancouver Zoo, which has been housing Tina for more than 30 years. The zoo was vilified for first trying to transfer Tina to the Bowmanville Zoo inOntario, run by someone with a reputation for hitting elephants while training them.

Administrative assistant Katherine Kehtler said emotions ran so high that one Greater Vancouver Zoo employee was turned away from his regular grocery store and she was refused service at her local gas station.

"Don't authorize that nozzle!" the owner shouted, as she tried to fill up her tank, Ms. Kehtler recalled. "He told me: 'You're the shame of B.C.'."

She could scarcely believe how big the story became. "Every morning coming into work, I had to dodge BC-TV, Global, CBC, CITY-TV. I'm looking out my window right now. They're still out there.

"Now I really understand why Michael Jackson is such a loopy person," Ms. Kehtler said. "He can't even pick his nose, or have some of it fall off, without being on TV."People are starving all over the world. Women and children are being battered. I mean, come on. The attention this is getting is amazing."

But back to Tina.

The story began earlier this month when the operators of the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove, just east of the city, revealed they were seeking a better home for Tina because the 33-year-old elephant was lonely and suffering from bad feet.

Hearts went out to Tina, which had been a fixture at the zoo for decades. Feelings turned to anger when it was learned that the Bowmanville Zoo had been chosen for Tina's final years.

Animal-rights activists charged that Bowmanville zoo co-owner Michael Hackenberger strikes his animals and uses other "adverse" methods to train them.Mr. Hackenberger denied the charges, explaining that he hit elephants during training when he was younger "and didn't know better." Now he gives them a belt only when necessary, such as when one acts aggressively towards a human or another elephant, he told reporters.

His explanation scarcely dampened the controversy, however, and, as the media frenzy grew, Mr. Hackenberger in disgust finally withdrew his offer to take Tina.

Enter Carol Buckley, the Jane Goodall of North American elephants. She has been captivated by the floppy-eared trunk-swingers since she first encountered a baby elephant, Tara, at the age of six months.

"Tara and I have now been together for 29 years," Ms. Buckley said. "Everybody has a calling. Some people help starving children. Others try to cure diseases. I don't think it's all that unusual forsomeone to be helping elephants."

She established her Tennessee elephant sanctuary in 1995 on 200 acres of rolling pasture and woodland. Financed by donations and fund-raising, the non-profit sanctuary has six elderly female Asian elephants on site. They can be watched around the clock by a non-stop cam on the sanctuary's Web site.

Ms. Buckley was asked, Why elephants? "Because they're amazing," she replied. "They are a walking body of emotion, the most compassionate animal you can imagine. They're like a magnet."

The sanctuary's other elephants are expected to welcome Tina with open trunks. "Tina's a happy-go-lucky elephant and the others will treat her with compassion and kindness," Miss Buckley said. "They will touch and caress her and bond immediately. After that, on such a special elephant day, it was time for champagne. Peter Fricker of the Vancouver Humane Society popped the cork and poured out some celebratory bubbly for everyone.

"Here's to Tina. And her freedom," he said.

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Ailing B.C. elephant moves to Tennessee

By TIFFANY CRAWFORD
May, 30, 2003

VANCOUVER (CP) - Tina, the aging and ailing elephant with chronic sore feet, is getting a new home in the United States where the owners think she'll recover in about six months.

Carol Buckley, an official of the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, said Friday the transfer of the pachyderm would likely take place before the end of June. She said it would take as long as four days and cost about $20,000 US to haul Tina to Tennessee in a specially designed semi-trailer.

The 33-year-old Tina will join six other female Asian elephants and eventually be able to roam in an area that will expand to about 1,100 hectares.

The sanctuary has plans to some day accommodate 100 elephants.

"Elephants' feet bruise easily, especially Asian elephants," said Buckley. "She's in a yard where even though the top surface of the dirt may seem loose, the truth of the matter is she has been walking around in that yard for 30 some odd years packing it down and so it's an unnaturally hard surface that causes the abscessing."

At the Tennessee sanctuary, which is not open to the public, her feet would be able to recover.

"Even though it's a chronic situation now she can recover in six months," said Buckley.

Peter Fricker of the Vancouver Humane Society had been campaigning for Tina to be sent to the natural habitat sanctuary. He and others toasted the decision with champagne.

The Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove, east of Vancouver, had announced earlier that it wanted to find a new home for the elephant.

The Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario had offered to take her but withdrew after animal welfare groups charged the elephant would be used for kids' rides and shows.

Michael Hackenberger, co-owner and director of the Ontario, withdrew his offer to take the ailing Asian elephant because of "the level of slander and lies."

"It's not the Canadian way and I'm not going to do it," he said.

Hackenberger also acknowledged that he hits his elephants when necessary, particularly when one is behaving aggressively towards people or other animals.

Jamie Dorgan, animal care manager with the Greater Vancouver Zoo, said the decision to send Tina to the Tennessee facility was made because she would also be with other elephants.

The staff and facility there are also better able to deal with her foot problems and she would have a huge area to roam in natural habitat, he said.

"I'm just happy we're doing the best thing for Tina and it was the right decision."

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Soon the zoo will have a new fun thing to do Nature education center to open next year
BY HUGH MCDIARMID JR.
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Thursday, May 29, 2003

The chilly wind of the polar ice cap and the gloom of Lake Superior's
depths are coming to nearly a quarter-million school kids in Michigan.

The Detroit Zoo's Ford Center for Environmental and Conservation
Education -- a $9.1-million effort to instill respect and understanding
of the natural world -- is the vehicle for bringing children as close to

many natural wonders as they will ever get.

When it opens late next year, it'll be the initial stop for school
field trips and other groups.

Technically speaking, some of the rooms in the center are classrooms.
But they will be camouflaged in such an awesome cornucopia of sounds,
sights and smells that the kids will never realize it, zoo Director Ron
Kagan promises.

On Wednesday, Kagan watched officials, including Detroit Mayor Kwame
Kilpatrick and Ford Motor Co. Chairman William Clay Ford Jr., shovel
ceremonial silver spades full of earth for the center. Ford Motor Co.
donated $5 million to the center. The remainder was split between
private donations and state funds.

The four classrooms will be changeable themed studios simulating
environments like deserts, rain forests, lake bottoms and coral reefs.

The centerpiece will be a 240-seat auditorium. Other features:

A 2,500-square-foot exhibit gallery.

The Wild Adventure Simulator, a motion-based experience that will be
moved to the center from its existing location at the zoo.

A resource center for teachers and researchers.

A video-link system that eventually will be able to broadcast live
events from anywhere on the zoo grounds to any school in Michigan.

Space for a Humane Education academy to encourage the ethics of
treading lightly on the Earth's resources.

In 18 months, the center should be filled with youngsters.

But its first, albeit unofficial, visitor was 2 1/2-year-old Gracie
Mahon, a Royal Oak youngster who demanded to be let into a makeshift
tent set up for the groundbreaking.

With a Red Wings cap on her brown bangs, Gracie charmed her way past
security, then cooed and giggled at the stuffed salamanders, dogs and
bears that zoo publicists had arranged around the speaker's podium.

"We come every few weeks," said her mother, Jackie Mahon. "This will
be done just in time for her to start using it."

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Zoo backtracks after outcry over ailing Tina's fate
Elephant won't be sent to Ontario if concerns about treatment are valid: manager
Nicholas Read
Vancouver Sun
May 29, 2003

Greater Vancouver Zoo general manager John Lee said Wednesday he won't send Tina, the zoo's ailing Asian elephant, to an Ontario zoo if concerns raised about her possible treatment there are true.

The zoo's announcement Tuesday that it planned to send Tina to the Bowmanville Zoo, a facility 64 kilometres east of Toronto, provoked an outcry from animal welfare groups who charged that the zoo's co-owner and director, Michael Hackenberger, strikes his animals and uses other forms of deprivation to train them.

But Lee said Wednesday the Vancouver zoo is in a position to change its mind "at any time" if such claims are true because no written commitments have been made to send her to Ontario.

Referring to the concerns reported in The Vancouver Sun Wednesday, Lee said: "If any of that is true, I will change my mind."He said the zoo has been deluged with complaints from the public ever since it announced its decision to move Tina to Ontario, and it is concerned about that.

Jamie Dorgan, the Greater Vancouver Zoo's animal-care manager, said Tuesday he had received assurances from Bowmanville's Hackenberger that Tina would not be used for entertainment purposes.

But Hackenberger said in a telephone interview Wednesday that Tina would be used for entertainment rides and in "educational" shows in the zoo's amphitheatre.

Lee said if that's true, he would change his mind about sending Tina there.

"I don't have the full details. If those factors are true, I will change my mind," Lee said. "It was not reported to me like that."Animal welfare groups want 33-year-old Tina, who suffers from chronic foot problems and isolation, to go to the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., a 1,200-hectare facility that takes nothing but female Asian elephants. Sanctuary director Carol Buckley wants her moved there as well.

Buckley, who used to work at the Bowmanville Zoo herself, said the Greater Vancouver Zoo has good reason to be concerned about what use Tina will be put to in Bowmanville and about the training methods used there. She also promised that Tina would not be used for any entertainment purposes in Tennessee.

John Youngman, a board member of the Winnipeg Humane Society, told The Sun on Wednesday that on a visit to Winnipeg in 2000, Hackenberger told him and other board members that he used"adversive" training methods on his animals.

Youngman also said that Hackenberger said those methods include hitting them.

In Wednesday's phone interview, Hackenberger said he has been training elephants for 20 years and that when he was younger "and didn't know better," he would hit them. Now he says he strikes them only when necessary, particularly when one is acting aggressively to a human or another elephant.

In 2002, the humane society issued a press release stating that after a Bowmanville elephant named Limba was alleged to have attacked a keeper at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, Hackenberger flew to Winnipeg, where he purchased a whip and an electric prod to beat her in reprisal.

Youngman said Hackenberger threatened to sue the society over the allegation, but that it neverheard from him again.

Hackenberger denied ever striking the elephant, and said he bought the prod in Winnipeg because it was more effective for use at his zoo than any prods he could buy in Ontario. He also said the whip was a buggy whip commonly used by horse riders.

Also of concern to animal-welfare groups is Bowmanville's practice of housing Asian elephants with African elephants.

Mike Keele, assistant director of the Oregon Zoo, where Tina was born, said African elephants can harbour a herpes virus that is potentially lethal to Asian elephants.

While African animals display no symptoms of the virus, Asian animals, if they contract it, usually die from it.Asked how much money an elephant like Tina could fetch on the open market, Keele guessed at anywhere between $30,000 US and $70,000 US.

Hackenberger said it could fetch more than that, but he was not paying Vancouver anything for Tina. He also said that if things didn't work out for her in Bowmanville, he and Greater Vancouver Zoo officials would move her.

Dorgan said the decision to send Tina to Ontario was made because of concerns about how long it would take to send her to Tennessee. He said gathering the necessary permits could take up to six months or longer.

But the Canadian office of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, the agency responsible for issuing the permit, says it would take six weeks.Buckley said that once the permit is in hand, "we could drive up and get her in two days."

She said the Greater Vancouver Zoo made several calls to her about Tina Wednesday, and she will be in Aldergrove Friday to discuss transfer time and other issues with Lee and Dorgan.

She also said that because of the enormous public outcry against moving Tina to Ontario, she is hopeful the zoo will change its mind.

"When all this is said and done, and Tina is trucked across the border, everyone can be proud of themselves for standing up and speaking out for her. That's what will make the difference."

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Zoo Elephants May Leave To Be Bred
May 29, 2003

PROVIDENCE -- Ginnie Kate and Alice might be heading for a new home.The three 18-year-old elephants are among the top attractions at the Roger WIllliams Park Zoo.

But with only about 230 African elephants in all of North America, a zoological group has recommended that the females be bred to increase the population.

But zoo officials said they can't afford to breed them here. The decision to ship them out hasn't been made, but the zoo says if they do go, they'll all go together since they've been with each other since 1990.

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Fight Over Elephant Continues
L.A. Zoo's Ruby has arrived at her new home in Tennessee, but Southland activists vow to try to bring her back.
May 28, 2003

By Carla Hall, Times Staff Writer

As Ruby, a 42-year-old African elephant, was ending her cross-country journey by truck from the Los Angeles Zoo to new quarters at Tennessee's Knoxville Zoo on Tuesday, animal rights activists here vowed to fight to bring her back.At a news conference outside City Hall, attorney Yael Trock said she would request that a court "bring Ruby back after she has had time to rest." Trock said she would also ask the court to sanction the Los Angeles Zoo for moving Ruby before a judge could rule on an injunction.

The zoo's action was not illegal, said Eric Moses, a spokesman for the city attorney's office, which represents the Los Angeles Zoo. But, he said, "We did warn them that there would be a public relations outcry if they acted before the court did."

Trock had filed suit on behalf of local resident Catherine Doyle, claiming that the move is detrimental to city taxpayers because it would harm Ruby and a 45-year-old Asian elephant, Gita, who have lived together for 16 years. Affidavits from animal experts, collected by Trock, contend that breaking that bond between female elephants — highly social in the wild — would be raumatic.

The zoo's attorney had the case moved from Superior Court to federal court — because federal laws govern endangered species, according to Moses — but Trock argued it should go back. Federal Judge Nora Manella remanded it to the state court on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Ruby arrived in Knoxville on Tuesday afternoon, accompanied by two Los Angeles zookeepers who will stay with her a few days.

"She's happily in her stall inside the barn; she's eating her dinner," said Jeff Briscoe, who had cared for the elephant here.

Gita, he said, was getting along well with the Los Angeles Zoo's other female, Tara, a 43-year-old African elephant.

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Tina's transfer to Ontario irks supporters
Tennessee facility offers better treatment for ailing elephant, animal activists contend

Nicholas Read
Vancouver Sun

May 28, 2003

In a move that has outraged animal-welfare groups, the Greater Vancouver Zoo has decided to send Tina -- its ailing Asian elephant -- to the Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario, a place that trains elephants for use in circuses and movies. Jamie Dorgan, the zoo's animal-care manager, announced Tuesday it had chosen the Bowmanville Zoo, a 17-hectare facility about 70 km east of Toronto, instead of the 1,200-hectare Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, because it would take too long to complete the necessary paperwork tomove Tina to the U.S., and the wait could further jeopardize the animal's already bad health.

Tina is suffering from chronic foot problems, and the zoo says the condition is worsening each day.

Dorgan said it could take up to a year to complete the documents needed to send Tina to Tennessee, but the move to Bowmanville could happen in two to three months.

"If we wait another six months, we're worried about what Tina's health will be like."

Bowmanville has the expertise necessary to look after Tina, Dorgan said, and is confident of receive good care there. However, he said while ownership of Tina is being transferred to Bowmanville, the Vancouver zoo retains the right to send the animal to Tennessee in 18 months if it is not satisfied with the treatment in Ontario.He also said the zoo will receive no money from Bowmanville for Tina.

Carol Buckley, director of the Tennessee Sanctuary, an exclusive refuge for abused female Asian elephants, was shocked by the zoo's decision to send Tina to Bowmanville.

At Bowmanville, she said, African and Asian elephants are kept together, which intimidates the smaller Asian animals. Males and females are also kept together, she said, which is unnatural. In the wild, she says, only females and suckling males live together, while males live solitary lives.

She says if elephants are introduced too suddenly to a strange group of animals, they can be traumatized by the experience. She also says Dorgan is wrong about the time it would take to obtain the permits necessary to move Tina across the border. She says her experience is that it takes only six weeks.Cecile Benoit at the Canadian office the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species, the agency responsible for issuing the permit, also confirmed it would take six weeks.

Michael Hackenberger, owner of the Bowmanville zoo, was not available for comment, but the Web site of the Humane Society of the U.S. indicates that fear and pain can be a fact of life for circus elephants.

"Circus training methods include beating animals with clubs and other objects [even during performances] and depriving them of food," HSUS says. "Trainers sometimes strike elephants with sharpened hooks, which can result in physical injury. Trainers resort to brutal methods to maintain a position of dominance."

Dorgan said he has received assurances from Bowmanville that Tina will not be used in circus rformances, but Buckley said once ownership of Tina is transferred to Bowmanville, she doubts such assurances will mean much.

The Bowmanville zoo's Web site confirms its animals are used in an amphitheatre and are loaned routinely to film and entertainment companies for many purposes.

Last year, a Bowmanville elephant was loaned to the Assiniboine Park Zoo in Winnipeg and it attacked a trainer. According to a news release issued at the time by the Winnipeg Humane Society, a Bowmanville representative flew to Winnipeg, where he purchased a whip and an electric prod from a local livestock supply company and beat the elephant in reprisal.

Buckley said even if Tina is not used in circuses, the animal would be better off staying in Aldergrove than going to Ontario.That's because, Buckley says, the enclosures at Bowmanville re no bigger than her pen in Aldergrove, their surface is just as hard on her feet as her current surface, and the weather in Aldergrove is better than it is in Ontario.

"In the winter, it gets knee-deep in mud, so the elephants are confined indoors for weeks at a time. If they are put outside, it's freezing cold."

Canadian animal-welfare groups also reacted with dismay.

"This decision is a disaster for Tina," said Peter Fricker of the Vancouver Humane Society. "It will only prolong her suffering. It's unbelievable the zoo has defied public opinion and put Tina's health at risk."

Julie Woodyer of ZooCheck Canada said: "We're concerned about the husbandry and trainingethods used at the zoo. We're concerned its animals are continually rented out for entertainment and commercial use, and we worry Tina could be slotted into that category."

Dorgan said he knew the zoo was risking public ire by deciding to move Tina to Bowmanville instead of Tennessee, but stood by the decision.

"All we're worried about is Tina," he said. "If I were worried about public backlash, I'd send her to Tennessee."

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Relocation opposed by California Humane Society
May 28, 2003

Ruby, the African elephant whose Knoxville relocation was opposed by California Humane Society fficials, arrived late Tuesday at the Knoxville Zoo with little fanfare.

The 42-year-old pachyderm arrived at Knoxville's Stokely African Elephant Preserve from the Los Angeles Zoo at 5:45 p.m. Transported in a large blue and white semi tractor-trailer and not tranquilized, Ruby was accompanied by two Los Angeles zookeepers, a veterinarian and the truck drivers. She was moved into a meshed quarantine stall in the preserve's 9,800-square-foot
two-story building where she'll gradually be introduced to the rest of the Knoxville herd.
By 7 p.m., she was calmly eating hay in her stall.That introduction will be "slow and gentle" and "at her pace" said Knoxville Zoo Executive Director Jim Vlna. The L.A. zookeepers will remain in Knoxville for a time to "teach our staff what they eed to know about Ruby," said Vlna.

The preserve exhibit opened in 2001 and includes a three-fourths of an acre outdoor lot with two pools and a mud hole. The elephants' indoor building has a skylight and padded, heated floors.
Ruby, who lived at the L.A. Zoo 16 years, came to Knoxville through an American Zoological Association recommendation. The recommendation is part lawsuit filed in California courts in early May against the move.The pending suit was filed in California courts by Catherine Doyle of Los Angeles and supported by the Hollywood offices of the Humane Society. The suit charges that moving Ruby would sever a bond between her and the L.A. Zoo's 45-year-old Asian elephant Gita. It also alleges California's climate is better for Ruby than Knoxville's.

But zoo officials in California and Tennessee say Ruby's relocation is best for her and fits in with alarger plan to make the Knoxville Zoo an African elephant breeding facility. The successful birth of African elephants is important to keep the species alive in North American zoos. Zoos' African
elephants are aging, and only five have given birth to healthy calves since 1994. Knoxville's bull elephant, Tonka is among a handful of male pachyderms capable of siring offspring, although he has yet to become a father.The Humane Society of the United States attacked the move in a repared statement released Tuesday.

"The zoo has resorted to reprehensible legal maneuvering to achieve its intractable goal of separating these elephants, and like thieves in the night, has spirited away City property from theresidents of Los Angeles," said Gretchen Wyler, vice president of the Humane Society's Hollywood
Office.Said Yael Trock, the attorney for Doyle: "Shame on the zoo for sneaking Ruby away in chains in he middle of the night, taking her away from her home and her best friend, while our request for a temporary restraining order was to be ruled on today. "We are not giving upon this and intend to take further legal action."

In Knoxville, Ruby will be introduced to three other female elephants and Tonka. The zoo hopes two of those females, 18-year-old Edie and another teenager named Donna, will one day be mothers. Donna is expected to arrive this summer from the Albuquerque Zoo; her move is another AZA SSP recommendation. It's doubtful Ruby, at 42, would have a calf. But since she gave birth once before, she's viewed as an important "aunt" figure to Knoxville's elephants
that have no mothering experience. "We feel she can teach our younger elephants what they need to know," Vlna said. "This is good or her because she's going to be with a larger group than before and with all African elephants."
Ruby is termed an easygoing elephant with a mothering nature. Vlna, who met the pachyderm two years ago, called her "a sweetheart of an elephant. She as nice and easygoing an elephant as I've seen." Lora LaMarca, Los Angeles Zoo director of marketing and public relations, said Rubyis "very, very affectionate and she really likes social situations."

The L.A. Zoo has been looking for a home for Ruby and "we are just not having a problem at all with her going (to Knoxville)," said LaMarca. "We think Ruby will be happier in Knoxville because she is a social animal." The L.A. Zoo plans to specialize in Asian elephants and this fall will begin
building a new elephant facility.LaMarca said the view that Ruby and Gita had a close bond "is really misguided." The animals' relationship was "kind of more like roommates who tolerated each other." Gita has shown no signsof anxiety over Ruby's departure, LaMarca said Tuesday.

African elephants have long been associated with the Knoxville Zoo. It was a circus outcast named Old Diamond who became a symbol for the zoo in the 1960s and 70s. Diamond fathered two calves in 1978. His namesake, Little Diamond, was the first African elephant born in a Western Hemisphere zoo. Little Diamond went to the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, N.C., in 1995 under another AZA SSP recommendation in hopes she and that zoo's
male named C'sar, will mate.

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Zoo officials to decide today where to send sick elephant

Nicholas Read
Vancouver Sun

May 27, 2003

The Greater Vancouver Zoo hopes to decide today where to send Tina, its
ailing Asian elephant.

Earlier, zoo officials said they would decide over the weekend, but on Monday zoo general manager John Lee said he and other zoo employees would "brainstorm [Tuesday] morning to decide which is the best place for her to be."

Lee also said zoo officials have been in touch with The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, and are now considering the 1,200-hectare facility as a possible new home for Tina. Previously, they had refused to talk to sanctuary director Carol Buckley, but never explained why.

The Tennessee sanctuary, which houses nothing but female Asian elephants, is the first choice of animal-welfare groups concerned about Tina's well-being.

However, such groups remain concerned that the zoo is also considering the Riddles Elephant and Wildlife Sanctuary in Arkansas as a new home.

Julie Woodyer of ZooCheck Canada says this facility teaches people how to train elephants "circus-style" and that when the U.S. department of agriculture proposed banning the use of electric prods on such elephants, Riddles opposed it, saying shocking elephants was a necessary part of training.

Lee admitted the zoo is considering Riddles as an alternative, but said in his view the Tennessee Sanctuary was the better choice.

However, he said the decision was not his alone to make, and that zoo officials would make their final decision cooperatively.

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Elephant Rescue
May 25, 2003
By Emily Langlie

SEATTLE - The Pacific Northwest is no stranger to animal rescue campaigns.

There was Ivan the gorilla, kept at a Tacoma variety store before being moved to an Atlanta zoo. There was also Keiko, the orca whale released into the north Atlantic.

Now there's Tina, a 33-year-old Asian elephant being kept at the Greater Vancouver Zoo in British Columbia.

A Duvall woman is working to get the elephant moved.

Tina is bored and lonely. The animal was born in Portland, and has spent the last 30 years at the Greater Vancouver Zoo.

A companion elephant left last year, and Tina is now suffering in a small enclosure with hard floors and too little stimulation.

Even though she lives hundreds of miles from Vancouver, a Seattle area woman is working to get the elephant to a better environment.

Nicole Meyer heard about the elephant last December. Since then she's made many trips to Vancouver to document the animal's chronic foot problems and disturbing behavior.

Now she's put up a website friendsoftina.com.

She wants the privately owned zoo to allow Tina to go to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.

Meyer hopes that one day she'll see pictures of Tina on the sanctuary website. "I'm hopeful we'll see her with a family group, healthy, splashing in the water. I know they would take good care of her and they really want her there."

But at least one keeper is expressing concern about Tina's ability to make the trip.

Jamie Dorgan or the Greater Vancouver Zoo says "With Tina's health we don't want to send her on a very long trip. We don't want to load her on the truck for a long trip because it might not be very good for her."

Nicole Meyer says while another zoo might be better than this, the Tennessee sanctuary is the best spot for Tina and she's hoping the zoo owners will agree and get the elephant on her way before it's too late.

The Zoo could make a decision as soon as this week.

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Zoo’s elephants move to roomier digs
Pachyderm pad expanded to give Mary and Ellen more space

BY C.S. MURPHY
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

May 23, 2003

Although Mary and Ellen made it their cozy home, residing in the Little Rock Zoo’s dusty elephant yard was the equivalent of living in a cramped apartment.

On Thursday, Little Rock’s beloved elephants made a move that will allow them to spend their golden years in style when zoo officials released the pair into a new grassy and tree-shaded exercise yard. The expansion more than doubles the elephants’ room to roam and provides cool spots for lounging and noshing on snacks.

"What we’re doing today isn’t for us and isn’t for you," said George Mallory, chairman of the zoo’s Board of Governors. "It’s for Ellen and Mary."

Before the ribbon cutting ceremony Thursday morning, the pachyderm roommates gently touched trunks and shuffled their wrinkled feet in a bashful, lumbering dance. For Ellen, who has lived at the zoo for 40 years, the expansion couldn’t come soon enough.

With Mary following closely, Ellen pushed through a ceremonial ribbon into a greener and shaded new world. A group of children squealed as they peered over a fence to glimpse the twosome. "The elephants just went to their new home," exclaimed one little girl with a Gibbs Magnet School sticker on her jacket.

Zoo Director Mike Blakely explained to a crowd of elephant enthusiasts that the 10,000-square-foot expansion will provide Mary and Ellen, both 51, with stimulation and enrichment they received in smaller doses in tighter quarters. Zookeepers will continue their practice of walking the elderly elephants around the zoo grounds daily to get their blood flowing.

The geriatric elephant couple have shared 9,500 square feet since Mary joined Ellen in 2001. Mary arrived as a local animal protection organization dispersed "Free Ellen" bumper stickers, trying to lobby zoo leaders to send Ellen, alone for more than 20 years, to an elephant sanctuary. Ellen’s former companion, Ruth, died in 1978.
The Virginia-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals had announced its intent to sue Little Rock and the zoo for violating the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The groups believed keeping Ellen captive and alone was cruel. She belonged with a herd that could give her the social stimulation she needs, they said.
Zoo officials began planning the elephant yard expansion even before Mary’s arrival. "We think it all worked out so well for our elephant family," a beaming Blakely said Thursday.

Two years ago, zookeepers slowly introduced Mary and Ellen, knowing there was a chance the two wouldn’t hit it off. Their personalities and backgrounds are decidedly dissimilar.

Mary’s past is a bit more intriguing than Ellen’s, who has not left the Little Rock Zoo since she arrived in 1954. More of an extrovert than Ellen, Mary is a retired circus elephant that traveled the nation in her younger days, wearing glittering costumes and entertaining crowds under the big top.

Despite their different backgrounds, the two hit it off and have made the cramped space their own, pounding the dusty ground with their fleshy, padded feet and taking dips in a small wading pool.

On Thursday, they seemed oblivious to the excitement of onlookers as Ellen flung dirt onto her back with her trunk. "This just makes me so happy," said Little Rock resident Barbie Hildebrand as she recorded the moment with a video camera. "I’m claustrophobic, and when I see an animal with not much space, I feel so bad. I don’t go to zoos much because of those feelings, but it’s so obvious that they’re happy."

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Pachyderm's progress, Amali's up and eating fruit.
Elephant is better but isn't out of the woods, veterinarians say

By Abe Aamidor
abe.aamidor@indystar.com
May 23, 2003

Amali, the elephant recovering from emergency abdominal surgery at the Indianapolis Zoo, was standing with support Thursday and has shown some interest in eating fruit, a zoo official said.

"However, she is still very weak and in very serious condition," said zoo spokeswoman Judy Gagen.

The elephant -- the world's first African elephant conceived through artificial insemination -- was suffering from an impacted abdominal tract when the emergency surgery was performed early Wednesday.

She has had some small bowel movements since then, Gagen said.

Amali's condition was of special concern to the Indianapolis woman who named her.

"I feel like she's part of the family," said Heidi Holmer, a librarian at the Girls Inc. National Resource Center in Indianapolis. She added that she's been worried sick about the elephant. She said she saw Amali playing at the zoo less than a month ago.

Zoo officials became concerned May 16 when the 2,000-pound animal vomited while snacking on sweet potatoes. After that, she stopped eating.

A five-member surgical team found a clump of hay, sand, gravel and fecal material in Amali's intestines during the surgery.

Dr. Joseph Foerner, a leading international expert on elephant surgeries at the Illinois Equine Hospital in Naperville, Ill., said elephants in captivity typically are kept on a surface of sand and small gravel to protect their feet.

But the elephants sometimes will pick up the sand and gravel with their trunks as they forage for food. Because the materials are more dense than food, they sometimes settle in the intestines, leading to blockages.

Foerner said the most dangerous time for an elephant would be during the surgery itself; if the animal survives that ordeal, it is past its first hurdle.

The next milestone comes about 72 hours later, which would be early Saturday. Abdominal stasis, meaning inactivity, is the threat, Foerner said.

"Once you've opened the animal, it kind of shocks the intestines," he said.

The threat of "intestinal adhesions," which Foerner compared with a ruptured appendix in humans, will persist for about two weeks, he added.

After that, Amali may be "out of the woods," he said.

Amali's birth in March 2000 brought international attention to the Indianapolis Zoo's artificial insemination program, which has served as a model for other successful inseminations of elephants worldwide.

There are 230 African elephants in captivity in North America, according to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.

Holmer said tearfully that she can't wait to visit Amali again.

"I was thinking about her constantly. Even during a meeting today, I was kind of sending her messages, like, 'You can get through this.' "

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Orphaned Elephants' Fate Is Debated: U.S. Zoos or Africa?
May 20, 2003
NYTimes.com
By BARBARA WHITAKER

At a game reserve in Swaziland, 11 orphaned elephants have been readied for a journey to two zoos in the United States. If the move occurs it will be the first in over a decade allowed under an international agreement involving African elephants from the wild.

Officials at the two zoos that want the elephants, the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla., say that importing them will prevent them from being killed and help with the management and conservation of the elephants, a threatened species.

But animal and elephant welfare groups are trying to block the importation. They say the move is unnecessary and that a better home can be found for the animals in Africa rather than placing them in zoos.

"We believe that this is setting a very dangerous precedent for trade of an endangered species for exhibition and entertainment purposes and that it is going to add to further decline of the species in the wild," said Katherine A. Meyer, a lawyer representing the groups opposed to the move.

African elephants are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or Cites, lists them as "a species deserving of the highest trade restriction because they are threatened with extinction in the wild."

Over the last six years, Cites has eased trade restrictions on elephants, changing their status in many parts of
southern Africa from Appendix I to Appendix II. But Swaziland has remained among the African countries listed on Appendix I, which includes a stipulation that elephants in those countries may not be traded for commercial purposes.

Swaziland, a small kingdom bordered by South Africa and Mozambique, has about 42 elephants, most of them brought to the country from the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Despite the small number, the space in national reserves and parks is limited, and wildlife authorities say they may have to kill some elephants to reduce their numbers.

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service initially granted permits for the zoos to import the elephants, four
to Lowry Park and seven to San Diego. Then the zoos relinquished their permits late last month after advocacy groups raised concerns about the move and later filed a lawsuit against the agency to block it.

In particular the groups - led by Born Free, an international wildlife charity - questioned whether the
elephants taken were the ones identified in the permit and whether they were taken from the area where they were supposed to be.

From another perspective, they argued that at least three other places in Africa were willing to take the animals, so the importation was unnecessary.

Zoo representatives played down issues regarding information in the permit applications, saying it was a
misunderstanding. They have filed to have the permits reissued.

"This is not an uncommon situation where we issue a permit and things change," said Kenneth Stansell, assistant director for international affairs with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

The applications to reissue the permits will be closely examined, he said, and it remains unclear whether they will be approved.

Mapping out the future for the elephant is not an easy task.

As the elephant population grows in southern Africa countries, it has continued to dwindle in parts of central
and western Africa. According to reports published by a consortium of conservation groups and Cites, there were about 1.2 million elephants across Africa in 1981.

By 1989, the number had dropped to 600,000. Estimates today vary widely, with experts saying that number could be anywhere from 300,000 to 650,000.

In contrast, the elephant population of South Africa has grown in recent years from an estimated 2,000 in 1981 to over 10,000. Botswana estimates its population in 2002 at 120,000, up from 20,000 in 1981.

And while the elephant population of Swaziland may be just over 40, officials there say the range land is limited enough that they are already seeing significant damage to habitat.

"Quite honestly, you have a number of range countries looking at ways in which to manage their elephant
populations," Mr. Stansell said.

At the same time, zoos in the United States are trying to figure out how they can replace their dwindling
populations. Captive breeding programs have not been successful, and zoos are looking for new ways to create a sustainable population under the American Zoo and Aquarium Association's species survival plan.

Jane Ballentine, a spokeswoman for the group, which represents more than 200 accredited zoos in North America, said that a number of genetic and demographic studies had all pointed to the same conclusion: "that the population of elephants in North American zoos is not self-sustaining over the next 50 years."

While animal welfare advocates argue that the elephants do not belong in zoos, Ms. Ballentine counters that zoos provide an opportunity for people to learn about wildlife and the world around them. "People will stand for hours and watch these animals," she said. "We really feel one of the ways people learn to care is by seeing an elephant. You're standing, looking, observing, building up this sense of wonder. You come to care individually."

In addition, zoo officials argue that research on the animals will help preserve the species both in captivity
and the wild. The zoos are paying $133,000 for the elephants, which officials say will be used in Swaziland
for protection of endangered species and expansion of habitat.

But animal welfare advocates say importing the elephants is just another way for zoos to make money, particularly when they're displaying babies, which generate large crowds. In that respect they say the effort is nothing more than a commercial venture banned under Cites.

In addition, advocates criticize zoo's track records when it comes to handling elephants.

"In the last 8 to 10 years, more than 55 African elephants in captivity, mostly zoos, have died in the United States," said Florence Lambert, founder and director of the Elephant Alliance, a nonprofit group dedicated to improving the plight of elephants in captivity. "It's a sad life for these creatures."

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Zoo seeks new home for elephant
Aldergrove centre hunts for sanctuary able to house Tina, an ailing 33-year-old pachyderm
Monday, May 19, 2003

The Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove is looking for a new home for Tina, its aging and sick Asian elephant.

General manager John Lee says the zoo has appointed Aldergrove veterinarian Bruce Burton to investigate facilities where the 33-year-old elephant might be sent, because her current enclosure is too small for her, and the zoo cannot afford to build her a new one.

"We are seeking a proper sanctuary or facility for Tina because she is old and ill," Lee said. "We are seeking every possibility to find proper facilities for her."

However, if a new home can't be found, Lee said, she will have to remain at the zoo.

Last year the zoo's African elephant, Tumpe, was moved to an unidentified facility in South Carolina after it was discovered that African elephants can harbour a virus that is potentially lethal to their Asian cousins.

The zoo's elephant enclosure, which can be seen from 264th Street in Aldergrove, has long been a source of concern among animal welfare advocates who say it is too small for an adult elephant and that its surface is too hard for an elephant's tender feet.

They also say it lacks any kind of enrichment to stimulate Tina and that, given that elephants are naturally social animals, she is suffering from isolation.

Lee says zoo patrons complain about the enclosure as well, and admitted that Tina does have "chronic" foot problems that necessitate moving her.

"Tina's condition is getting aggravated day by day," Lee said.

Advocates are pleased that the zoo may move her, but worry about where she might be sent.

"It's great news that Tina may be moving from the zoo, but she needs to go to an accredited elephant sanctuary, not another zoo -- that would only prolong her misery," said Peter Fricker, a spokesman for the Vancouver Humane Society.

"Tina's been [at the zoo] for 30 years, living in extremely poor conditions, and it's vital that her environment is improved. We've monitored her situation for a long time and the zoo has been promising to upgrade her enclosure for years."

According to the VHS, Tina was born at the Oregon Zoo in Portland in 1970. She was moved to the Vancouver Game Farm, as it was then known, in 1972.

In 1989, she was moved to the Lion Country Safari in Florida for breeding, but when she failed to get pregnant she was returned to Aldergrove in 1990. She has remained there ever since.

Lee said one of the places Burton is considering sending Tina is the Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary, a 200-hectare natural enclosure specifically for "old, sick or needy Asian elephants" 100 kilometres from Nashville.

Sanctuary director Carol Buckley says she would be pleased to have Tina, but so far no one at the zoo has contacted her.

"I have not been contacted," Buckley said in an e-mail to ZooCheck Canada, another group monitoring Tina's situation.

"Please note Tina must be moved to an environment where she can live on natural substrate [surface] in order for her feet to heal," Buckley wrote. "She must move here!" Burton was not available for comment.

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Elephants settling in new paddock
May 17, 2003

Flossie and Flora's new home has loads more space and other elephants to
meet Black Country elephants Flossie and Flora are settling in to their new life
in France. A month ago the mammoth pair were shipped abroad from Dudley
Zoological Gardens in a specially constructed container to join an
eight-strong herd of African elephants at the Planet Sauvage wildlife park
near Nantes.

Zoo chief executive Peter Suddock said Flossie, aged 35, and Flora, 15, were
showing positive signs of integration with the other herd members.

The zoo has devoted the latest edition of its Zoo Nooz newsletter to an
update on the transfer operation and photographs of the pair settling into
their new home.

Flossie, who weighs more than five tons and three-ton Flora, a former circus
elephant, left the zoo on April 9 and were accompanied throughout the
journey by a vet and three senior keepers.

Decision

The elephants' behaviour in the specially-made lorry, belonging to Woburn
Safari Park, was constantly monitored by CCTV.

From the cramped elephant house where they lived at Dudley Zoo, Flossie and
Flora now enjoy a 15-acre dedicated paddock area with a lake and modern
accommodation.

The other elephants include an 18-year-old male and a baby.

Flossie had been at Dudley since 1976 after being brought to Britain as an
eight-year-old. Flora arrived in 1998 from Chipperfield's Circus.

The zoo had originally hoped to build a new £400,000 elephant house and
increase its herd to seven, but new rules on keeping elephants increased the
cost to more than £800,000.

Instead a decision was made to find a new home for the pair and after a
two-year search across Europe, 200-acre Planet Sauvage was chosen.

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Groups Fight Importing of African Elephants;
Activists say San Diego facility lied on request for permit. A U.S. official
is investigating.
Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 13. 2003

For 15 years, not a single elephant has been imported from Africa to a North
American zoo. The San Diego Wild Animal Park wants to change that -- arguing
that without new elephants, the popular species will disappear from U.S.
zoos.

But a coalition of animal rights organizations has vowed to do everything
possible to ensure that the giant animals never leave Africa.

"This isn't about conservation," said Adam Roberts, vice president of Born
Free USA, one of several groups that have sued to block the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service from allowing the elephants to be brought to San Diego and
to the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla. "This is about getting visitors to the
zoo."

Behind the dispute are sharp disagreements about the fate of the African
elephant and the role that zoos should play in housing threatened species.

Many U.S. zoos are expected to seek new elephants in coming decades as their
current animals become too old to breed and eventually begin dying off. But
animal rights groups say wild animals should be left in the wild, where they
have more space and where their social structure remains intact.

The groups say the proposed elephant importation could start a dangerous
trend.

"This is just the beginning," said Tanya Sanerib, an attorney at Meyer &
Glitzenstein, which filed the lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C.,
last month. "It's just the tip of the iceberg of the zoos bringing elephants
in for their exhibitions."

Zoo officials said the elephants are in danger of being killed at home,
because they are overpopulating their reserves and destroying native
habitat. A statement from the head of Swaziland's big game parks says the
number of elephants at the Mkhaya Game Reserve has to be controlled and that
the country has no other adequately protected land for them.

"The situation is getting more serious day by day," said Christina Simmons,
spokeswoman for the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the zoo in
Balboa Park and the Wild Animal Park east of Escondido. "They are going to
be killed if they are not moved."

The coalition, by contrast, has accused the zoos of deliberately providing
inaccurate information on permit applications about where the elephants
would come from and how they were selected. The zoos have denied the charge
and have submitted amended applications with more details about both
questions.

Tim Van Norman, chief of international permits for the wildlife service, is
investigating the allegations and deciding whether to approve the shipment.
If he determines that the zoos lied, he will be required to rule them
ineligible for the permits.

"At this point, no decision has been made whether they lied to us or not,"
he said. "It's still an open application."

To grant a permit, the wildlife service must determine several things,
including that the elephants are not for primarily commercial purposes, that
the importation will have no negative effect on the African elephant
population and that the zoos are equipped to house and care for the animals.

The African elephant, a threatened species, has a population of 400,000 in
the wild, down from 1.3 million about 30 years ago. There are roughly 225
African elephants in captivity in North America in zoos and private reserves
or with individual owners, according to Deborah Olson, who keeps elephant
statistics for the American Zoo and Aquarium Assn.

The last time African elephants were legally imported to North American zoos
was in 1988, when one went to Edmonton, Canada, and three were transported
to Providence, R.I. There was also an importation in 1991 of several African
elephants to entertainer Michael Jackson, Olson said.

So many elephants were brought to U.S. zoos in the early 1980s that there
wasn't a need to import more for years, said Mike Keele, of the zoo
association. Wildlife service officials said only a few zoos applied for
elephant permits between 1989 and 2002, and those were denied.

During that time, Keele and others were working to assess the future of the
captive elephant population.

They determined that the population is shrinking rapidly and could disappear
in two or three decades, unless more elephants are imported from Africa and
used for breeding. U.S. zoos have had some difficulty breeding African
elephants, with a number of miscarriages and stillbirths. Of 19 births in
the last decade, only eight calves are still alive. And now many of the
females in captivity are getting too old to breed.

"Without this import, it's going to be very difficult to maintain the
captive population of elephants in zoos in North America," said Olson.

The association created a plan in 1997 aimed at increasing the number of
elephants that could be bred. With the group's backing, the Lowry Park Zoo
and the San Diego Wild Animal Park applied for permits to import the
elephants from Swaziland, a small nation in southern Africa. The permits
were granted in September.

"The elephants are going to definitely benefit the community," said Heather
Sitton, spokeswoman for the Lowry Park Zoo. Visitors will have the
opportunity to learn about their history and efforts being made to protect
their future. "We are continuously working on conservation projects ... and
this is something that we feel is important to do."

The Tampa facility is paying $48,000 for two male and two female elephants,
which would be the stars of a new $28-million African exhibit slated to open
in spring 2004.

The Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the zoo in Balboa Park and
the Wild Animal Park east of Escondido, is paying $85,000 for one female and
six male elephants. Zoo officials said they have been told by reserve
personnel that the profits from the sales will be spent on anti-poaching
efforts in Swaziland, such as fences, security roads and two-way radios.

In preparation for their arrival, San Diego officials transferred four
African elephants to zoos in Chicago and Tyler, Texas. The new elephants,
all about 12 years old, would be quarantined before they could be seen by
the public, zoo officials said. They intend to breed the new elephants and
use them to conduct studies, educate the public and raise money for
conservation programs.

But Roberts and other activists say the 11 elephants -- of a total of 45 in
Swaziland -- would not have to be killed if they remained in Africa and
could instead be taken to other reserves or parks in neighboring countries.

The Ngome Game Reserve in South Africa has said it would be glad to take the
11 elephants, according to a statement from the reserve's management
company.

The groups also charge that neither the Tampa nor the San Diego facility has
effectively protected elephants or their keepers. In a highly publicized
incident in 1988, an African elephant at the Wild Animal Park was beaten by
employees. Three years later, a keeper was killed at the park when an Asian
elephant knocked her down and trampled her. And in 1993, an Asian elephant
killed a keeper at the Lowry Park Zoo.

"We want to stop this import, because we do not believe that zoos in the
United States are capable of caring for elephants," attorney Sanerib said.
"They don't have the space, and they don't provide the adequate habitat and
social structure for elephants in captivity."

The lawsuit, filed April 9 against the Fish and Wildlife Service and the
U.S. Department of the Interior, says the zoos specified in the permit
applications that the elephants were captured from the 18,000-acre Mkhaya
Game Reserve, but that they were actually taken from 74,000-acre Hlane
National Park.

In a letter to the zoos requesting more information, Van Norman said he
granted the permits on the assumption that the elephants were from Mkhaya.

"Given that the permit that you currently hold was issued based on the
information provided in your application, it would not be valid for
importation of elephants collected from an area outside of Mkhaya Game
Reserve," he wrote.

In their response, the zoos acknowledged that some of the elephants were
taken from Hlane and that they, too, are in danger of being killed if they
are not transferred.

Simmons, of the San Diego Wild Animal Park, said it's common for the service
to ask for clarifying details and that she had no reason to believe the
permit would not be reissued.

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The zoo's losers
The San Francisco Zoo pours millions into cosmetic changes while the animals wait for housing improvements.
May 07, 2003
By Savannah Blackwell

STROLL THROUGH THE San Francisco Zoo's smoothly paved and freshly landscaped entryway, pass by the Wildlife Connection gift shop packed with stuffed animals and T-shirts, past the bronze statue of a cougar, and you'll reach the magnificent new $5 million Connie and Bob Lurie Education Center.

There, zoo visitors will find the Great Room, featuring a 28-foot-high vaulted ceiling – a contemporary take, it appears, on Henry VIII's Great Hall at Hampton Court. It's an impressive space, with a stone, floor-to-ceiling fireplace and eight koala-shaped sconces to provide gentle lighting. Portraits of the endangered species of North America hang on the walls.

Hungry visitors can dine at the new Leaping Lemur Café, where $3 million created a spacious circular structure of glass and wood. It's part of the $18 million spread around the new entrance, representing zoo director David Anderson's best effort to wow the public and convince San Francisco that the place – so long a source of unfulfilled promises – is finally turning itself around.

The new displays are as lofty and grand as the rhetoric of zoo management, which touts conservation-oriented goals in public statements and on banners at the new Lipman Family Lemur Forest exhibit. Yet despite promising to get the animals off concrete and onto grass, during the 1997 bond campaign aimed at funding a massive renovation, management has made few significant changes to the animals' housing conditions.

Hard ground
Ten years after the city turned the management of the zoo over to a private foundation and six years after voters approved the $48 million bond, the zoo's lone orangutan, Lipz (her companion, Rusty, has passed on), still resides on cement – despite the use of a sad-looking orangutan on campaign posters.

The situation has gotten so bad that zookeepers, who for years have held their tongues for fear of retaliation from management (in the past, those who have publicly criticized the zoo's operations quickly lost their jobs; see "The Zoo Blues," 5/19/99), are starting to make their concerns known. At the April 2 meeting of the Joint Zoo Committee, a few keepers spoke out, though others interviewed for this story asked that their names be withheld.

"The bottom line is they sold the public on this bond by saying the money would be spent on the existing animals," one zookeeper, who asked not to be named, told us. "But we don't feel that any of those animals have benefited at all. When you promise to spend the money on animal areas and then you don't, that seems fraudulent. We had this big chunk of change. This was our big chance, and they have just blown it. And that's frustrated a lot of people."

Anderson was not available May 5 for comment on whether the zoo broke election-related promises.

Of the $53 million spent so far on the zoo's $92 million renovation, only a small percentage has gone to animal exhibits. About $2.5 million went to the Lemur Forest – where 20 primates cavort in an open area – and about $700,000 went to fixing up the meerkat and prairie dog facilities in the Children's Zoo.

Zoo officials have failed to follow the key recommendations of a 2000 audit of the zoo's operations by Harvey Rose, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' budget analyst, activists and zookeepers say. The city provides about $4 million of the zoo's $14 million annual operating budget.

The report strongly urged zoo officials to rearrange the scheduling of projects so that the first of the bond proceeds would go toward improving the animals' living conditions. That way, according to Joel Parrot, the Oakland Zoo director who participated in the audit, the public would notice the new commitment to the most important part of the zoo and attendance would rise (see "Animals the Losers in S.F. Budget," 6/28/00).

Deputy director John Mann said zoo officials decided it made the most sense to start the renovations with the construction of Zoo Street, which is the path leading from the zoo's new gates. "It didn't make any sense to build exhibits without a way to get to them," he said.

But management's focus on visitor amenities instead of animal quarters has alarmed zookeepers, several of whom told us they questioned, for example, why the zoo spent nearly $3 million on a new cinder-block warehouse to house stock for the gift shop before they decided to build a much needed quarantine area for hoofed critters. The structure cost about $800,000 more than expected. Indeed, several projects have ballooned in cost – largely due to the need to go back and correct construction and design problems, our sources said. Mann denied the overruns were caused by errors. Rather, he said bond-related litigation tied up the project for two years, driving up costs.

Meanwhile, new animals have had to spend their first couple of months at the zoo confined in what zookeepers describe as inadequate spaces (according to a source who showed us the pen, Eric Van Duiker, an African antelope, did his time in a tiny, leafy, and frequently wet enclosure – with a piece of plywood leaning against a fence to shelter his water bowl).

"We thought [the warehouse] was supposed to be used for a hoofstock quarantine," another keeper told us. "But we're not even allowed to store food in there. It's a symbol of all this glitzy stuff they've built between here and the ocean.... But what's pissing me off about all that bond money is that those animals they used for the [campaign] posters – a polar bear, Asian elephant, orangutan, and lion – none of those animals will receive any bond money but are still stuck living in their old quarters."

Mann said that the quarantine will be constructed and that bids for the project are already underway.

Sordid past
For decades the San Francisco Zoo has been a source of sordid tales of animal mishaps. It has been faulted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture for problems that affect animal safety and welfare.

USDA inspectors make regular visits to the zoo, as is their policy for zoos that have ongoing problems, agency officials told us. In 1999 inspectors issued the zoo a ticket for failing "to maintain housing facilities, provide adequate food and failure to maintain sanitation of enclosures."

Most recently, in August 2002, USDA inspectors found rodent feces in the howler monkey exhibits. Dealing with the USDA's concerns more effectively was one of the issues raised in the 2000 audit.

A design flaw in the primate center contributed to the deaths of 53 of the 85 primates in the mid 1980s after the animals were exposed to their own feces for an extended period. In 1994, around the time management decided to lay off night staff, there were reports of late-night abuse of animals at the Children's Zoo (see "Sold," 10/19/94).

Zoo officials admitted they erred in rushing to move in an Asian elephant companion for Tinkerbelle in time for the 1997 bond campaign. The companion, Calle, turned out to have tuberculosis. In December 2000 two koalas were kidnapped from their quarters; five giraffes have died since 2000; and in February the zoo lost a mother lion, Kita, when her uterus ruptured, likely due to an undetected cub that was trapped in the breach position.

Meanwhile, budget woes have hit. And management's plan for dealing with a budding $500,000 deficit will result in less of a zoo for the public to see, keepers say. For example, the zoo is planning to further reduce the number of animals. Two harbor seals will be shipped out, and instead of spending money on a new companion for Lipz, the zoo has given her her walking papers as well. And management would like to get rid of the two African elephants, Maybelle and Lulu, if they can find someplace that will take them.

The aye-aye exhibit, which provides quarters much more cramped than this endangered rain forest primate's natural surroundings, has failed. Duke University has asked for the return of the two rare primates. They never mated, and according to keepers, they had to breathe foul air from a ventilation system that hadn't been cleaned in years – until someone got fed up and called in the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Large sections of the zoo may also be shut down to save money, with the animals consolidated toward the center of the facility. Humans have also been affected. Six administrators – including Eva Sargent, who headed up conservation studies – have been let go. Management is planning to eliminate five full-time positions, as well as some part-time ones.

"Makes you wonder how real our commitment really is to conservation," one zoo insider, who asked not to be named, told us.

Zoo officials assure keepers and activists that the animals will be the next to benefit from the bond money. And their main plan for achieving that is the construction of a $20 million African savannah exhibit – in which various species will be allowed to roam and interact – which is set to open next year. Sounds good, but the zookeepers say the new project is already fraught with problems.

Amid concerns that the savannah isn't big enough to handle the number of animals planned for the sp