Worst Zoos for Elephants - Hall of Shame

List for repeat offenders that have made little or no progress improving conditions for elephants..

2008

Dickerson Park Zoo (Missouri) - This zoo has a terrible record with elephants. Of 10 elephants born at the zoo, only two are alive today. Five calves were stricken with the highly fatal elephant herpesvirus, with all but one dying from the deadly infection. Despite being a herpesvirus "hotspot," the zoo continued its breeding program for years, often transporting female elephants to and from other zoos and circuses. Only after the death of 16-month-old Nisha in December 2007 did the Dickerson Park Zoo put a temporary hold on elephant breeding. Meanwhile the four adult female Asian elephants at this zoo languish in a cramped one-acre exhibit and concrete-floored barn. Dickerson earns additional Hall of Shame stripes for its 2001 beating of the elephant named Chai, who lost 1000 pounds, and a history of painful foot problems, psychological problems, aggression and premature deaths that have plagued its elephants over the years.

El Paso Zoo (Texas) - This zoo admitted that its three-quarter acre elephant exhibit was too small, yet the next year a new zoo director convinced the City of El Paso that the very same exhibit was acceptable for its two elephants, Juno and Savannah. The exhibit may comply with the AZA’s pitifully minimal standards that allow elephants to be kept in an outdoor space about the size of a three-car garage and an indoor pen measuring only 20 feet by 20 feet, but it’s far from adequate for the zoo’s two elephants, who regularly display intensely repetitive, abnormal behaviors, such as swaying and rocking, a sign of serious psychological distress. This zoo also earns its place in the Hall of Shame due to its despicable history of elephant beatings.

St. Louis Zoo (Missouri) - Elephants continue to suffer at this zoo, which has made repeated appearances on IDA’s Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants list. Asian elephant Clara was euthanized at age 54, after suffering for years from crippling arthritis and chronic foot disease, the result of decades spent in the zoo's tiny exhibit. Clara’s companion Pearl continues to languish at the zoo, becoming increasingly debilitated. In 2007, Jade was born, but rejected by her mother, Rani. Another elephant, Sri, has survived despite her failure to expel a fetus that died in utero in November 2005. In 2008, young Jade was struck by the deadly elephant herpesvirus but managed to survive, though she suffered a relapse in December 2009. Half-sister Maliha has tested positive for the disease but did not show clinical signs. No significant change is on the horizon for St. Louis’s seven elephants who are crammed into a half-acre or less of outdoor space and spend long stretches behind locked doors in concrete stalls at night and 24/7 during cold midwest winter days.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (California) - This amusement park has a hideous history of elephant suffering and deaths, showing complete disregard for the health and well-being of the seven elephants forced to live in the shadow of roller coaster rides, amidst noisy, rowdy crowds. Nine elephants have died at the park since 1995. Five of those elephants were euthanized as a direct result of the same foot and joint disorders that afflict at least two elephants there currently, painful ailments caused by the cramped and barren exhibit. Six Flags forces elephants to perform in shows and give rides through coercion and physical punishment with a bullhook, a steel-tipped device similar to a fireplace poker used to poke, prod and beat elephants into compliance. Six Flags needs to acknowledge that forcing elephants to live in highly unnatural conditions that cause them to suffer and die prematurely is not entertaining or fun.

2009

Los Angeles Zoo (California) - The Los Angeles Zoo has a terrible history of 14 elephant deaths, but that didn’t stop it from charging ahead with a wasteful $42 million elephant exhibit that still will be too small for elephants. The zoo misled city officials into supporting the project by distorting the truth and even covering up a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) stipulated fine for failure to provide adequate and timely veterinary care in the 2006 death of the elephant Gita – critical information that may have changed the outcome of the city council’s vote to continue displaying elephants at the zoo. The zoo also violated California state law when it withheld information requested by IDA regarding the USDA fine. The zoo’s lone elephant, Billy, continues to suffer in cruel solitary confinement and display abnormal repetitive head bobbing, a sign of psychological distress.

Woodland Park Zoo (Washington) - A deadly elephant breeding program, intense confinement and a host of captivity-induced ailments put this zoo – where the elephants are confined in an outdated barn for 17 hours a day, 7 days a week, 7 months a year due to the cold, wet Seattle weather – in IDA’s Hall of Shame. Chai, Bamboo and Watoto are held in roughly an acre of space divided into smaller yards (Watoto, an African elephant, and Bamboo, an Asian, don’t get along and must be kept separate), where they suffer foot disease and arthritis, abnormal behaviors such as repetitive swaying and rocking, and breeding disorders including early infertility. A lethal elephant herpes virus that mainly strikes captive elephants killed six-year-old Hansa in 2007 and remains a serious threat to any elephant born at the zoo in the future, yet it continues to subject Chai to repeated invasive artificial insemination procedures.