3 Elephant Keepers at San Diego Zoo Sickened by Superbug

February 7, 2008

When will they learn - get wild animals out of zoos! 3 Elephant Keepers at San Diego Zoo Sickened by Superbug 2/05 Three elephant keepers at the San Diego Wild Animal Park have been sickened by the same superbug that killed an Encinitas boy and sent a high school coach to the hospital last month. County public health officials are closely monitoring cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. A 13-year-old Diegueno Middle School seventh-grader

died on Jan. 19 from the superbug and a 50-year-old Fallbrook High School wrestling coach was briefly hospitalized with it two weeks ago. The keepers at the park are receiving antibiotics, the Times reported. County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten told the Times that it's unlikely recent visitors to the park were exposed to the superbug because the infected keepers work in an area off-limits to the public. http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join

February 7, 2008

Where are animals supposed to be exactly since we are destroying their habitats? Zoos provide the last viable sources of gene pools. In a perfect world, yes, animals should be in the wild. Sadly we are destroying everything and some of the species last chance for survival depend on zoos...

Have you ever been behind the scenes in a zoo? Those animals are well cared for and loved. I'm a vegan but I also volunteer at the zoo. We make their lives enjoyable. Trying to make the best out of a failing world.

On Feb 7, 2008 10:16 AM, Shannon Morgan <fortheanmls wrote:

When will they learn - get wild animals out of zoos! 3 Elephant Keepers at San Diego Zoo Sickened by Superbug

2/05

Three elephant keepers at the San Diego Wild Animal Park have been sickened by the same superbug that killed an Encinitas boy and sent a high school coach to the hospital last month.

County public health officials are closely monitoring cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. A 13-year-old Diegueno Middle School seventh-grader

died on Jan. 19 from the superbug and a 50-year-old Fallbrook High School wrestling coach was briefly hospitalized with it two weeks ago. The keepers at the park are receiving antibiotics, the Times reported.

County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten told the Times that it's unlikely recent visitors to the park were exposed to the superbug because the infected keepers work in an area off-limits to the public.

http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join

February 8, 2008

Well, they shouldn't be in little prisons, living mostly on concrete, bored out of their skulls for human "entertainment". I believe in abolition of all animal exploitation. Just because humans are ruining their habitats doesn't mean we have to make the animals miserable in another place. The "conservation" gimmick is an excuse to keep exploiting them. How many of these offspring are introduced into the wild? Ringling has a "conservation" program, too. All go into the circus. I have never seen a happy looking zoo animal. Granted, I don't go anymore because I would never give a dime of my money to support this travesty. Many are taken from their families in the wild. How is that "helping" them? Most have a hard time breeding, because their lives are so stressful and unnatural, so they have to be artificially inseminated and many have stillborn babies or need C-sections. If they were

happy and well adjusted, none of this would be necessary. I don't call that "love". It's greed. Zoos are an archaic form of "entertainment", just like circuses and rodeos, causing animals pain by denying them their natural, instinctual needs for our pleasure. To live in a cement enclosure that is a pathetic facade of their "natural" habitats to be gawked at by the human ape, no pun intended, is just wrong. How many elephants have to die from foot and joint disease, totally incurable even with constant antibiotic use? Having to be euthanized at half their life span because they have to stand on cement or hard packed dirt that causes it? Living in extreme and unfathomable pain for years because it would cost the zoo money to lose one? That's love? How about the human strain of TB that is deadly to them? Eleven zoos closed

their elephant exhibits last year because of this problem; at least they are aware and care enough to do that. I'm sure the animals all get great medical care. If they were left in the wild they wouldn't need all that medical care. Thank goodness for sanctuaries that rescue animals damaged by humans. Sanctuaries without the general public there to gawk as well. Many times when the animals escape their little prisons, they are killed because they are considered "dangerous" to humans. Does that sound right to you? I don't believe this instills any more kind of importance to children to conserve these species than the circus, only that animals are put here for our amusement. They will forget about the zoo very soon afterwards. It sure doesn't make a Marlin Perkins out of them! It's all propaganda, just like the meat

industry's claims to nutrition, the rodeo's claim of "loving" its animals, the circuses' bullhooks being a "leash" or a "guide", and all the other lies trying to justify exploiting animals.Shanda Woods <shandaw wrote: Where are animals supposed to be exactly since we are destroying their habitats? Zoos provide the last viable sources of gene pools. In a perfect world, yes, animals should be in the wild. Sadly we are destroying everything and some of the species last chance for survival depend on zoos... Have you ever been

behind the scenes in a zoo? Those animals are well cared for and loved. I'm a vegan but I also volunteer at the zoo. We make their lives enjoyable. Trying to make the best out of a failing world. On Feb 7, 2008 10:16 AM, Shannon Morgan <fortheanmls > wrote: When will they learn - get wild animals out of zoos! 3 Elephant Keepers at San Diego Zoo Sickened by Superbug 2/05 Three elephant keepers at the San Diego Wild Animal Park have been sickened by the same superbug that killed an Encinitas boy and sent a high school coach to the hospital last month. County public health officials are closely monitoring cases of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA. A 13-year-old Diegueno Middle School seventh-grader died on Jan. 19 from the superbug and a 50-year-old Fallbrook High School wrestling coach was briefly hospitalized with it two weeks ago. The keepers at the park are receiving antibiotics, the Times reported. County Public Health Officer Dr. Wilma Wooten told the Times that it's unlikely recent visitors to the park were exposed to the superbug because the infected keepers work in an area off-limits to the public. http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join http://pets.Fortheanimals7/join