The Experts Speak

"Do we continue to put money into zoos that were created 200 years ago, or do we go down a different route that offers a real success because it protects animals in their habitats rather than in captivity?"
- Will Travers, CEO of Born Free Foundation

"[Even under the best of conditions], elephants are actually very poor candidates for life in captivity. . . . [I doubt] if a dozen elephants worldwide are in truly good psychological, behavioral, and social conditions. Their requirements are so substantial-it is probably beyond the capabilities of most zoos to even begin to resolve them."
- David Hancocks, former director of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, WA

"No captive situation, however attractive it may appear to a human, can possibly be adequate for the needs of an elephant in terms of space. An example is our 10 year old bull, Imenti, who walked 84 miles in 14 hours, turned round and walked back 100 miles in search of a friend. Even Tsavo, which is 8,000 square miles in extent, can be traversed by elephants in a matter of days - and is"
- Dr. Daphne Sheldrick D.V.M., M.B.E., M.B.S., 1992 UNEP Global 500 Laureate, has worked with elephants for 50 years, both in a wild and captive situations, and is considered one of the leading authorities on the African elephant

"There are no substitutes for walking in a restricted environment, no enrichment strategies that motivate a captive elephant sufficiently, no boomer balls or tires that replace walking and no food dispensers that will create activity patterns in elephants that even come close to being beneficial to the long-term management of captive elephants. The absence of walking from an elephant program, considering the elephant is genetically programmed to move, must have dramatic long-term effect on the elephant's physical and mental stability and must ultimately affect it's longevity and propagation."
- Walking, Outline of U.S.D.A. Elephant Course, Seattle, August 3, 1998

"Long periods of inactivity can and will be detrimental to the health and longevity of an elephant. To an animal that is programmed to move eighteen out of twenty-four hours, inactivity has a high price. Normally, the nail and foot tissue of an elephant is worn down during the long hours of walking over different substrates. Flexibility to wrist, knees and their joints is increased and maintained by the continuous movement of their daily activities. Foot problems, if not caused by injury, trauma or arthritic conditions of joints, are the end product of inadequate movement and activity. An elephant's foot will regenerate normally without elaborate pedicures, providing an exercise regime of mass movement and daily walks is sustained throughout the elephant's life. If an abscess develops and the elephant is maintained in an inadequate care system, re-infection will occur until the infection has reached the toe digits and surgery is need. Very few of these cases survive."
- Alan Roocroft, consultant who has worked with captive elephants for over 30 years

"This fascination by the public to see elephants up-close and personal has resulted in disastrous consequences for captive elephants. As a direct result of the public's desire to get closer, elephants live a miserable life: confined to small places, forced to submit to human dominance, fed only processed food due to restricted living space. Elephants deteriorate, both physically and emotionally, in an environment created to accommodate public interaction. If the only way that humans can know and enjoy the gentleness and spirituality of elephants is by interacting with them, then the species is doomed."
- Carol Buckley, founder, the Elephant Sanctuary