September 22, 2005
Philadelphia Inquirer
By Julie Stoiber, Inquirer Staff Writer

Competing visions of what's right for the elephants clashed this week at the Philadelphia Zoo as animal activists stepped up their free-the-herd campaign and administrators pushed a fund-raising drive that they hope will allow them to enlarge the habitat and add more of the majestic mammals.

The activists distributed leaflets outside the zoo gates calling the pachyderm quarters cramped and hazardous, and gathered signatures on a petition demanding that the herd of four be released to a sanctuary.

"We really want them to close that exhibit," said Rowan Morrison, who is organizing the demonstrations.

Zoo officials continued to raise money for a planned 2.5-acre, $22 million savanna that they want to unveil in 2008. Failing that, they plan to continue showing the older elephants, Petal, 49, and Dulary, 41, who have lived here since they were babies.

"They're well-adjusted here," said Kim Lengel, senior curator of mammals at the zoo. "This is their home, and they get excellent care."

The demonstrations, which will continue through Sunday, coincide with the national observance today of Elephant Appreciation Day and come at a time when elephant welfare is in the spotlight. In the last year:

The American Zoo & Aquarium Association embarked on a program to replenish the captive elephant population through a nationwide breeding program.

Twelve zoo elephants died in the United States.

Three large zoos - Detroit, San Francisco and Lincoln Park in Chicago - closed their elephant exhibits.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, called for a study on whether his city's zoo should continue to house elephants.

All that makes administrators and handlers at the Philadelphia Zoo more determined to improve conditions for their herd, which also includes Kallie and Bette, who are in their 20s and of prime breeding age.

Morrison said her eight- to 10-member anti-captivity group, the Zoo Education Campaign, is just as resolute and will demonstrate regularly.

On Sunday, the group collected 100 signatures on its petition and planned to return to the zoo today. Some visitors, she said, were unswayed.

"A lot of people want their kids to have fun and see these animals," she said. "They just don't care."

The animals' obvious lack of room to roam is one of Morrison's top concerns. The four elephants, who weigh a total of 33,000 pounds and were all born in the wild, spend their days in a quarter-acre enclosure that is surrounded by rocks and equipped with a pond, a mud wallow and a rotating array of toys.

After-hours, and on icy days, they stay in a 1,800-square-foot, concrete-floored barn.

One day this week, Lengel, the mammal curator, watched as Petal stood in the dirt yard using her trunk and tusks to bat around a perforated plastic cylinder, spilling out carrots her keepers had hidden inside.

"To the eye of someone who is coming in looking for a beautiful savanna, this isn't it," she acknowledged. "But you have to look at how the elephants are behaving; these are relaxed, calm animals."

Keith Hinshaw, head veterinarian at the zoo, said the elephants are examined daily for signs of foot and skin problems. They are trained to balance on truck scales so handlers can monitor their weight, to present their trunks for tuberculosis testing, to extend their veiny ears for blood collection.

"You couldn't hold an elephant's ear if it didn't want you to," Hinshaw said.

The animals show no sign of arthritis or foot infection, two maladies often seen in captive elephants, he said.

They rumble at their keepers, a good sign. Lengel said they do not bob and sway, behaviors that indicate that the psychologically complex creatures are in distress.

If the zoo succeeds in raising enough to build its savanna, the elephants would have more space to wander, but they still would not cover the many miles an elephant walks in the wild.

"It's very difficult to say how far an elephant wants to travel," said Andy Baker, senior vice president for animal programs. "The way we look at the exhibit for elephants is not so much the quantity of the space but the quality."

Lack of room for exercise is one of the greatest hazards for captive elephants, said Carol Buckley, who runs the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., which is home to 11 zoo and circus retirees.

"In captivity, elephants are not wearing down their pads and nails to maintain healthy feet," she said. "The keepers' job is to keep that trimmed and clean and healthy."

In zoo elephants at the sanctuary, she sees pads and nails that were trimmed too aggressively, leaving the animals susceptible to osteomyelitis, a bone infection.

Buckley began working with elephants three decades ago when, as a student in California, she volunteered to care for a baby elephant that was on exhibit at a tire store and living in the back of a delivery truck. She and Tarra, who lives at the sanctuary, went on to perform in circuses and at zoos.

"Elephants were designed by nature to be constantly active," she said. "In zoos they are deprived of that."

While acknowledging that the elephant quarters fall short, zoo chief executive Alexander L. Hoskins says he does not believe that the institution should stop showing the creatures.

They help the zoo educate the public and create empathy for wildlife, he said.

"That affects how people vote, how people consume," Hoskins said. "I do believe we have an impact."