Groups like PETA have done such damage to the animal rights cause that it’s almost tempting to have a knee-jerk reaction against assertion of such rights. But reading about the Detroit Zoo shutting down its elephant exhibit does give one pause.
The Detroit Zoo will become the first major zoo to stop exhibiting elephants on ethical grounds because they can develop arthritis and stress-related ailments in captivity, officials said on Thursday.
The Detroit Zoo has one of the largest facilities in the country, but its Asian elephants Winky and Wanda still have recurring foot problems due to the cold weather, Director Ron Kagen told Reuters.
In the wild, elephants roam vast areas, live in large families, and exhibit some of the same social traits as humans such as forming friendships and mourning for their dead. “Elephants seem to be intelligent and even social in ways that are similar to humans,” Kagen said. “Elephants can suffer from similar things to what we suffer from when we’re in difficult environments.”
Confined to zoos and circuses, elephants develop physical problems and neurotic behaviors such as rocking back and forth and aggressive behavior, he said.
“If we don’t feel like we can (keep elephants), then the question is, who can and how?,” he said. “For us, there really is a big question about whether elephants should be in captivity at all.”
It will be interesting to see whether this becomes more of a trend. Certainly zoos have been under a lot of pressure to upgrade their facilities to more natural and less stressful enclosures, and most decent-sized institutions have done so.
But if the nature of a particular animal is such that any sort of reasonable enclosure is going to lead to physical and emotional health problems, can one justify keeping that animal in any zoo?
Presumably larger “preserve”-style institutions could continue to keep their elephants in captivity — the San Diego Wild Animal Park comes to mind — but the day of elephants in large (but still confined) spaces in zoos may be numbered.
And that may not be such a bad thing, even if it means it’s less likely that Katherine will be able to see one in person.
Some elephants in nature do live where it gets very cold. There have to be other concerns to take the elephants out of that zoo. Health issues like foot conditions, arthritis, and even pneumonia can arise…in nature as well as in captivity. Unfortunately, most of our animals in capitivity end up dying from disorders caused by living the “good life*.”
You’re absolutely correct that the Wild Animal Park is (and always has been) one of the growing number of facilities with the large, preserve-style enclosures for its animals. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to see elephants from other zoos relocated to WAP or another facility of its ilk in the future. In fact, WAP is in the process of developing new elephant enclosures so that they can accommodate more than one herd of African elephants and possibly more than one herd of the Asians.
As for PETA – let’s not forget that they’re the ones who opposed WAP receiving the elephants from Africa last year. (Forget that the animals would have been killed. Forget that there truly was NO PLACE LEFT IN AFRICA FOR THEM! Forget that some of the females were gravid.) PETA stopped caring about the true plight of any animal long ago. Now they’re about little more than getting exposure for their latest set of loony ideas.
Anyhow, I hope PETA doesn’t get any more crazy ideas and I hope Detroit considers the Columbus Zoo, Lowry, WAP, or heck, even Disney World as future home for their elephants. Providing the animals with more space is never a bad idea.
* Dr. Biruté Galdikas, Primatologist – May 19, 2004, San Diego, CA.