Resources - Bowmanville Zoo Fact Sheet

Bowmanville Zoo - Ontario

Bowmanville zoo is a privately owned facility located about 45minutes east of Toronto. The zoo is an accredited member of CAZA.

According to studbook records, Bowmanville Zoo currently has 4 elephants.

  • Vance - male, Asian from Thailand, captured from the wild, EYB 1971
  • Caesar - male, Asian, origin not clear, EYB 1986
  • Limba - Female Asian from Vietnam, captured from the wild EYB 1964
  • Kesheiba (a.k.a Sheba) - African, Female Captured from the wild, Mozambique EYB 1975, on loan from Bridgeport Zoo.

The following elephants are marked as having died in the records:

  • Angus - male, African captured from South Africa, 27 years old at death
  • Lisa - female, Asian captured from Thailand, 32 years old at death
  • Tony - male, Asian country of origin unknown, 27 years old at death

I visited this zoo on the 6th of September 2006. There were two elephants on display in a small enclosure surrounded by a short steel fence with horizontally-running cables. The elephants stood at the back of the enclosure close to the barn. One of the elephants, an adult Asian male, had his tusks sawn off, leaving two short stubs.

This elephant exhibited stereotypic behavior, standing on the spot and swaying his head and trunk repeatedly from side to side. Next to him was a tuskless female African elephant. She had great difficulty walking. Her hind legs were very stiff and rigid, and thus she had a very strange walk. After walking a few paces, she kicked her back legs forward and rubbed the pads of her feet against her ears. She repeated this strange movement with the other leg. She repeated this after every few steps. Her legs seemed very sore aat one point, when she spotted a bird in the enclosure, she attempted to move forward to chase the bird butthe effort was too much. She backtowards the top of the enclosurshook her head vigorously and then kicked her legs towards her ears again. She seemed visibly agitated.

The Asian male continued to sway from side to side, totally oblivious of the female’s presence. This male was probably Vance. Information from Zoocheck Canada indicates that in 1990, Vance suffered a serious leg injury during a show when he was being forced to walk on his hind legs. Vance was then propped up in the barn in a sling until the injury healed. In 2003, Vance underwent a thermograph to diagnose a leg ailment.

According to Zoocheck Canada, Bowmanville Zoo has a long history of using their elephants for various types of entertainment shows including circuses, parades, fairs, films, children’s parties commercials, etc. This is confirmed by numerous media reports in the Globe and the Mail, Canada’s largest national newspaper. One report I read also indicated that the elephants are chained inside the barn periodically, although I was unable to observe this myself.

One of the two owners of Bowmanville Zoo, Michael Hackenberger, has been publicly accused on several occasions of mistreating elephants. For example, in 2002, a Winnipeg Humane Society media release indicated that Hackenberger had flown to Winnipeg to discipline an elephant that he had loaned to the Assinibioine Park Zoo. The elephant, Limba, had attacked a keeper at the zoo, so, according to the release, “Limba’s owner flew into Winnipeg from his home in Ontario following the attack, purchased a whip and electric pod at a local livestock supply company and beat the elephant as a reprisal for the attack.”

The elephant enclosure at Bowmanville Zoo is very small, a mere fraction of the size of sanctuary enclosures and miniscule compared to the area used by elephants in the wild. The elephants that I observed at this facility were exhibiting stereotypic behaviors indicating that they are likely stressed or bored. In addition, the stiff stance of the African elephant and her restricted gait would indicate that she may be suffering from an arthritic condition or other joint disorders. Furthermore, as I have mentioned throughout this report, the climate is inappropriate for these animals, causing them to be kept in barns for a significant portion of their lives. The allegations of heavy-handed tactics being used to ‘control’ the elephants is also concerning.