AUSTRALIAN ELEPHANT IMPORTATION WITHELD

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http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/zoos-told-they-are-not-fit-for-elephants/\

2005/12/22/1135032136028.html

Zoos told they are not fit for elephants

By Andrew Darby

December 24, 2005

 

 

 

FINAL approval for the controversial importation of eight Asian elephants to

the Melbourne and Sydney zoos is being withheld in a wrangle over the

animals' new living conditions.

 

The zoos claimed victory in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal last month

against welfare groups that opposed the importation from Thailand.

 

But despite the building of costly new enclosures, the tribunal is yet to be

satisfied that its demands for improvements in the elephants' living

conditions have been met.

 

It called for changes at both zoos, including better sleeping arrangements

and softer flooring to prevent skin and foot diseases that animals can

contract on hard surfaces in zoos.

 

The tribunal also cast doubt on a plan to walk elephant cows along public

paths at Sydney's Taronga Zoo to socialise with a lone bull after it is

separated from them on reaching maturity.

 

The eight elephants, aged from five to 13, are still being held in

pre-export quarantine in Thailand a year after the zoos hoped to fly them to

the Cocos Islands to spend another three months in isolation before they can

come to mainland Australia.

 

They are intended to form the nucleus of a new herd held by six zoos around

Australia and New Zealand as elephants currently held in captivity age and

decline.

 

The tribunal, chaired by Justice Garry Downes, last month rejected the

welfare groups' appeal against the importation, which had been approved by

Environment Minister Ian Campbell.

 

Taronga Zoo chief executive Guy Cooper said that a misinformation campaign

had stranded the elephants and their carers in Thailand.

 

Taronga is completing a $40 million Asian rainforest exhibit with the

elephants as the centrepiece, and Melbourne Zoo has a $14 million Trail of

the Elephants exhibit waiting.

 

Despite this, the tribunal said the zoos seemed to accept that their more

spacious facilities — the Werribee Open Range Zoo west of Melbourne and the

Western Plains Zoo near Dubbo, NSW — were preferable to confinement in city

zoos.

 

It also said programs designed to reduce boredom and avoid undesirable

behaviour in the animals such as repetitive swaying fell a long way short of

" enriching " for an elephant in captivity and instead supplied a basic need.

 

The tribunal queried whether mud wallows and banks at the Melbourne Zoo were

enough for the three new animals, which will join an existing pair, and it

sought improvement in barn floors that did not provide substantial

cushioning.

 

More queries were raised about Taronga Zoo, where there was only a thin

rubber surface painted on concrete floors and no sleeping mound such as the

one in Melbourne, which the tribunal said was essential.

 

The zoos responded to the requests at a hearing last week and the tribunal

was satisfied with the responses, a Taronga spokesman said.

 

The RSPCA, Humane Society International and International Fund for Animal

Welfare were given time to respond to the tribunal on the adequacy of the

changes and a final decision is expected on January 17.

 

" If these animals are ultimately to come, we will be aiming to make sure

that their lives are as comfortable as possible and their welfare hasn't

been compromised, " said the society's campaigns manager Nicola Beynon.