Group says zoo mistreats lone elephant

[Guest guest]

Group says zoo mistreats lone elephant

 

By Brian Chasnoff - Express-News

 

A nonprofit animal-rights organization based in California filed a complaint this week with the U.S. Department of Agriculture against the San Antonio Zoo, claiming the zoo's treatment of its only elephant violates federal law.

Catherine Doyle, a member of the California-based group In Defense of Animals, held a news conference Thursday outside the zoo's entrance.

“We are alarmed that Lucky is living in woefully inadequate conditions,” Doyle said. “We are calling on the zoo to do the right thing and send Lucky to a sanctuary.”

Doyle and others — including Mel Richardson, who worked at the zoo as a veterinarian in the early 1990s — cited a litany of complaints, asserting that Lucky is suffering from a lack of companionship and that her enclosure is far too small and its surface is too flat and hard, resulting in painful arthritis in her feet and legs.

The 49-year-old Asian elephant has lived at the zoo for 47 years in an exhibit that spans about half an acre. Her previous companion, a female African elephant named Alport, died in November 2007 after tearing a knee ligament and falling.

Despite its stance that “it is inappropriate to keep highly social female elephants singly,” the Association of Zoos and Aquariums renewed a variance last year that grants the zoo until March to find Lucky a companion.

“We're very close,” said Steve McCusker, the zoo's executive director.

Steve Feldman — spokesman for the AZA, which reaccredited the zoo last year — said finding another Asian elephant is “not an easy thing.”

“Yes, elephants are social,” he said. “But this elephant is closely bonded with its keepers. There's a lot of love and attention this elephant gets every day.”

McCusker took a hard-line stance against anyone who argues that the zoo is mistreating its animals.

“I think they're out to close all zoos,” he said. “They don't know anything about medical science, they don't know anything about biology, they don't know anything about captive management, they don't know anything about what we do for field research and for rare and endangered species.”

He added, “I would suggest that arguing with them is fruitless.”

McCusker rebutted a rumor that the zoo plans to ship Lucky and her future companion to another zoo when it eventually completes the third phase of its Africa Live attraction, which will include African elephants.

“We're committed to keeping Asian elephants,” he said.

He added that Lucky does not suffer from arthritis and is in good health.

Advocates such as Doyle and Richardson would prefer to make that determination independently. They complain that the zoo has refused to release any medical records on its animals.

“They'll never get them, ever,” McCusker said. “They would utilize those documents for all the wrong reasons and don't have people capable of interpreting them.”

The USDA inspects any publicly filed complaints, a spokesman with the agency said.