All elephants in zoos face several diseases largely unique to captivity, some lethal. Untimely death and unnecessary suffering loom close-by, even for captive elephants in the 'best' zoos.
IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS: The year 2020 was one for the history books, with lives everywhere upended or tragically cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. As normal life ceased to exist, we learned a little of what captivity feels like. Lockdowns and shelter-in-place orders gave us a bitter, yet temporary taste of the imprisonment elephants and other animals experience in zoos their entire lives. Many elephants are separated without choice from those they once knew as a standard zoo practice. Others face complete social isolation from their own kind.
All elephants in zoos face several diseases largely unique to captivity, some lethal. Untimely death and unnecessary suffering loom close-by, even for captive elephants in the “best” zoos. Of the elephants who perished in North America’s accredited zoos in 2020, two siblings died from a virus endemic to Asian elephants. Dead at one and five years, their only view of the world was through bars…
Many of the zoos on the 10 Worst Zoos list demonstrate how zoos engage in “transfer abuse,” trafficking elephants from place to place, often multiple times. This unique cruelty is rife in zoos, even though it can cause significant trauma — both for elephants moved and those left behind. Elephants who suffer separation through transfer abuse are significantly more likely to perform abnormal “stereotypic” behaviors, a known indicator of compromised welfare. These strange repetitive movements are not seen in the wild and are a symptom of zoochosis — psychosis caused by confinement. It’s a response to the physical and psychological frustration of confined animals’ innate needs. Most zoo visitors do not realize that these odd behaviors can be stress-related…
Despite the world’s sharp focus on suffering caused by confinement and disease, In Defense of Animals’ list of the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America for 2020 reveals that zoos continued business as usual in profiting off elephants’ lives throughout the pandemic — and concealed the price wild and captive elephants pay for zoo captivity…
It shouldn’t take a significant tragedy like COVID-19 to show us just how bad captive elephants have it. The science is sound: elephants can often barely survive in zoos, let alone thrive. It’s time to stop pretending we can improve this broken system and instead make one final transfer: turn over all captive elephants in zoos to accredited sanctuaries and end all attempts to import them from the wild as zoos fail elephants in captivity now as they always have. SOURCE…
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