St. Louis Zoo Fact vs. Fiction

The St. Louis Zoo (SLZ) has responded to emails of concern about the suffering elephant Clara with a number of misrepresentations and falsehoods.

 

State of the Art? The St. Louis Zoos concrete-floored indoor barn stalls, like the one to which Sri, above, was confined before and after she lost her full-term calf in utero, are not state of the art. Nor are the Zoo’s outdoor yards, which are ½ acre or less in size. The yards are comprised of hard, compacted-earth substrate, which takes its toll on elephants’ feet, and are surrounded by vegetation that is hotwired, so that the elephants don’t have access to it.

Here is the truth:

#1: The experts agree: Elephants are suffering at the St. Louis Zoo and it’s just not right! 

“I believe the [elephant medical] problems . . . taken from the St. Louis Zoo’s own medical records are caused by the exhibits and enclosures. Even with the most modern veterinary care these elephants are suffering. If St. Louis cannot provide pain free habitats for their elephants, they need to send them to someone who can.”

- Mel Richardson, DVM, zoo and wildlife vet with over 30 years experience working with elephants. Dr. Richardson thoroughly evaluated the SLZ elephant medical records. His full report at http://www.helpelephants.com/feature_060425.html

"Conditions at the St. Louis Zoo do not come close to meeting the vast spatial and social needs of elephants . . . The many painful, captivity-induced health problems afflicting elephants in St. Louis are clear evidence that the zoo is failing to meet the requirements set forth under federal law."
- Les Schobert, former General Curator of the Los Angeles and North Carolina Zoos

#2 The St. Louis Zoo elephant exhibit is not state-of-the-art.

In the wild, elephants: 
• Walk for tens of miles each day on soil and grasses. 
• Have extended families, females remain together for life.
• Have a sophisticated language, intricate social structure and rituals for mourning their dead.

At the St. Louis Zoo, elephants: 
• Spend their lives on hard ground and in tiny yards of a half-acre or less.
• Are confined to concrete barn stalls for extended periods of time, especially during winter. 
• Cannot exercise adequately. Stand on hard surfaces for years on end.
• Develop painful problems with joints and feet, as well as other disorders.

State of the art captive elephant care:
• Is provided at the nation’s two elephant sanctuaries.
• The Elephant Sanctuary provides elephants with 2,700+ acres of natural habitat in Tennessee and the PAWS Sanctuary gives elephants 100+ acres in the rolling foothills of California’s Sierra Mountains. 
• The space, natural habitat and freedom of choice offered at these two sanctuaries have restored quality of life to elephants debilitated from arthritis and foot disease after years of living in a zoo or circus.


#3 Six of the Zoo’s seven adult elephants suffer from lameness, recurrent foot abscesses, arthritis and/or other health problems. The medical records don’t lie!

Clara, Age 53: Severe foot and sole abscesses and arthritis. On anti-inflammatory drugs for “pain management.” Drugs have caused bleeding ulcers and evidence of kidney compromise. Forced to wear rubber-soled “sandals” due to erosion of rear foot pads. Clara constantly shifts weight on back feet. 

Pearl, Age 35: Foot abscess and seroma, sole erosions and ulcers, cracked nails. Prolapsed uterus after birthing Raja in 1993. “Chronic urine dribbling from incontinence” has caused urine scalds on legs and soft soles and hooves on rear feet with “soft almost gelatinous tissue” between digits. 

Donna, Age 34: Nail cracks, foot erosions, abscess on left front foot that “always heals then breaks open." (Abscess noted 2001, 2002, 2004) Diagnosed overweight.

Ellie, Age 35: Lameness, stiff front limb considered “normal for this animal.” Nail cracks. Birthed Rani in 1997 and a female calf in August 2006. 

Rani, Age 9: Lameness/movement difficulty noted 2001 - 2004: treated with anti-inflammatory drugs (2002, 2004). Foot/nail problems. “possibility of abnormal [nail] conformation, increased wear due to animals only recently being allowed out after being indoors all winter.” 

Raja, Age 13: Foot problems – nail cracks, pitted soles, cracked heels. Tusk cracks and breaks. Left tusk with pulp exposed –problem lasted at least two years. 

Sri, Age 26: Full-term calf died in womb November 2005. Still carrying dead daughter. Failing to expel dead fetus has killed at least three other elephants in zoos in recent years.


#3 Clara, 53, is not elderly in terms of natural elephant lifespan. 

The zoo claims, "The average lifespan of an elephant in the wild and in zoos in 35 years - and Clara has tipped the charts at 53 years." Saying that the average lifespan of an elephant is 35 years is patently false. In fact, scientific references document that an elephant lifespan is 60-70 years. 
An elephant can live up to 70 years and when an elephant dies of old age the cause of death is often hunger as the 6th set of molars wears out. – IUCN World Conservation Union, http://iucn.org/themes/ssc/sgs/afesg/faq/elefaq.html#RangeStates

[The elephant is a] long-lived animal with a lifespan of over 60 years.
T.N.C. Vidya and R. Sukumar, “Social and reproductive behaviour in elephants”, Current Science, Vol 89, no. 7, 10 October 2005

Elephants have one of the longest lifespans of all mammals- about seventy years … Deaths from poaching still outnumber any natural or accidental occurrences of death in elephants.
(Estes, 1999; Payne, Langbauer, Jr., 1992; Moss, 1992) 
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Loxodonta_africana.html

Most zoo websites also report this fact. A few, like St. Louis Zoo, whose elephant programs have been the focus of public scrutiny, have revised elephant lifespan downward to correspond with their own dismal records of keeping elephants in captivity.
 
The zoo is DELIBERATELY MISLEADING THE PUBLIC. The truth is elephants in zoos should be living much longer than their wild counterparts since they are not subject to factors that kill elephants in the wild such as poaching, drought and famine. BUT THEY’RE NOT. Despite daily keeper care, veterinary attention and a steady diet, elephants are dying prematurely. In fact, more than half of the elephants who died in AZA-accredited facilities since 2000 did not live to age 40, dying far short of their natural lifespan of 60-70 years. 

# 4 Exhibiting Asian elephants in St. Louis has nothing to do with saving the species from extinction.

No elephant bred in St. Louis or any other zoo will be returned to the wild. The St. Louis Zoo is breeding elephants to keep them on display in zoos, not to restock dwindling wild populations.

The major threats to elephants’ survival in the wild are poaching, habitat destruction and other man-made causes. Real conservation involves saving habitat and funding anti-poaching efforts in range countries, not breeding elephants in U.S. zoos. Many international conservationists agree: 

Western zoos claim their breeding programs will save the endangered Asian elephant but nothing could be further from the truth. Captivity does not equal conservation. . . . The best way for these zoos . . . to assist with the future conservation of this species is to support field conservation programs in Asia." - Vivek Menon, executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India 

As to the notion that people must see elephants in zoos in order to care about their survival in the wild, please note that people have been seeing elephants in zoos for 200 years, but that still has not saved the species from the brink of extinction today. 

#5 Accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums does not mean that SLZ is meeting the needs of elephants. 

The AZA is a trade industry association, with facilities being accredited and regulated by the operators of zoos themselves. While AZA space standards for elephants are conveniently consistent with the limited amount of space that urban zoos can provide, they are not adequate for maintaining the physical and psychological health of elephants. 

AZA standards require only 1,800 square feet of outdoor space for one elephant. That’s the size of your average three-car garage. Required indoor space is even smaller, allowing elephants to be kept in a tiny 20 foot by 20 foot stall. In addition, AZA zoos can chain elephants for up to 12 hours a day, and can employ bullhooks, electric hotshots and other instruments of force on elephants. AZA even accredits an amusement park (Six Flags) that keeps elephants under the shadow of a rollercoaster and uses them in elephant rides (a practice that has been widely abandoned due to humane and public safety concerns)!