Vegblog 9/29/09: Buffalo Zoo’s Buki Free At Last; Billy, Savannah and Lucy Still Imprisoned
posted September 29, 2009 - 2:19pmI’m relieved that Buki, a long-suffering, now-deceased zoo elephant, is finally beyond the control of humans, but very sad that except for the first couple of years of her life in Thailand, before her mother and other relatives were killed by hunters and she was captured for the
circus trade, she never knew what it was like to be simply a wild elephant.
Buki was broken, then forced, through the use of constant physical and mental torment, to perform in a circus and later to spend the rest of her life incarcerated at a zoo. Buki was typical of many imprisoned elephants. Carol Buckley, a former elephant trainer and now co-head of The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee, explains that captive elephants either learn to cope with their highly unnatural life or they rebel: “Some will resign themselves and just kind of end up in this blank space, and others will act out, just venting their frustrations, . . . . "
From what I’ve read, Buki lived in that blank space, docile and obedient to the end. Besides the usual stress that these huge, highly intelligent, social creatures suffer living at zoos (the concrete they spend much of their time on damages their feet and encourages arthritis, there’s a danger of contracting tuberculosis, pneumonia and other diseases, there’s the psychological stress of often not having companions and the constant frustration of never getting enough room to roam), all of which leads to stereotypical behaviors like swaying constantly from side to side. Coming from a warm climate, like all elephants, Buki also had to endure Buffalo’s extremely harsh winters and having to be locked up much of that frigid time in an indoor concrete stall.
There are many other zoo elephants like Buki still alive and suffering in the United States. One of them, Billy, an Asian elephant and the only one remaining at the Los Angeles Zoo, is at the center of a lawsuit involving animal advocates versus zoo advocates and the city of Los Angeles. Those who care about Billy as a wild creature want him sent to a sanctuary to live out his life. Instead, the zoo, which has been fined by the USDA for the deaths of two of its inmates, insists that it will build a new and improved $42 million Pachyderm Forest consisting of a mere few acres, keep Billy, and buy other elephants when construction is completed. Billy’s companion Gita suddenly died in 2006 because of mistreatment, and a chimpanzee named Judeo also lost his life prematurely that same year. The lawsuit against the zoo was brought by actor Robert Culp among others on the grounds that the new exhibit would be a waste of taxpayer money because the zoo abuses its elephants. The only good news related to the elephants at the LA Zoo is that the African elephant Ruby, a former zoo inmate, was moved to the PAWS (Performing Animals Welfare Society) sanctuary in central California recently after much public pressure and is doing fine there, with plenty of companions, good treatment, and space to wander.
While Buki was living out her last weeks in Buffalo, Savannah, one of two Asian Elephants at the El Paso Zoo, had to be lifted by firefighters after she lay down and then couldn’t get up on her own,due to severe arthritis, a condition that plagues zoo elephants because they spend so much time on hard ground and get very little exercise.
Ironically, this happened on Elephant Appreciation Day, September 22nd, which the El Paso zoo and other zoos like to use as a PR tool to convince the public that their elephants are happy and healthy. It didn’t work out too well for them this year!
Like Billy, Lucy is the ailing sole elephant at the Valley Zoo in Calgary, Edmonton, Canada, and like Buki, she has to endure extremely cold winters that have clearly damaged her health. Bob Barker, William Shatner, writers Margaret Atwood, Barbara Gowdy and Michael Ondaatje, along with Zoocheck Canada and Voice for Animals Humane Society are all lobbying to have her transferred to an animal sanctuary, the next best thing to living in the wild for a captive elephant. While the pro-zoo crowd insists that she cannot be moved because she’s too ill and it might kill her, animal advocates say that staying at the zoo will end her life.
Debi Zimmerman, a veterinarian who has researched Lucy’s condition, concluded that she must be moved from her current environment or she will die prematurely. However, city council members, who want to keep Lucy, a moneymaker for the zoo no matter what her health status may be or how lonely she is, refuse to acknowledge her report. This is typical of the zoo mentality. After all, zoos are not primarily educational venues that exist to teach the public about wild animals, but rather businesses concerned about profit margins. Because of the recession, zoos have lost income, and elephants, among other zoo inmates, are suffering all the more for it.
In fact, the Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque, New Mexico is downright blatant about what it expects from its elephants: money. A yet-to-be-named baby elephant (the zoo is charging the public $1 each to vote on suggested names) is causing visitors to flock to the zoo, which translates into cold, hard cash.
Other zoos that hope to cash in on recent elephant births are the Columbus Zoo in Ohio and the Oregon Zoo.
Meanwhile, the North Carolina Zoo has completed a controversial pachyderm exhibit called the Watani Grasslands Reserve that received an award from the AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums, a zoo trade group.
The PR director for the zoo writes a glowing article about the glories of the new exhibit and how lucky their elephants are to live in it (surprise surprise).
This exhibit has been severely criticized for its unnaturalness. Suzanne Roy of In Defense of Animals weighs in, concluding that the exhibit is just a glorified prison for its inmates.
And lastly, Doug Clark, a journalist with no particular axe to grind, expresses concern over the lack of space for elephants and other pachyderm issues at the North Carolina Zoo and zoos across the United States.
What does it all mean? Should we be concerned about the tragic, circumscribed lives that zoo elephants live just to entertain humans? Should we care that Buki lived without experiencing freedom? I believe we should. Write to the zoo in your area if it keeps elephants and let the director know that you don’t want wild elephants to have to live in an unnatural, tiny space as specimens in an exhibit (as if they were inanimate objects). Elephants in their natural environment travel scores of miles in a day. Elephants are highly social, intelligent, family-oriented animals.
Yes, there are problems with elephant/human interactions in the wild because of human encroachment on their habitat, but zoos are not the solution. A number of zoos have already closed their elephant exhibits, in some cases after the premature deaths of their inmates. Don’t let this happen to the Bukis, Savannahs, Lucys and Billys in your zoo. Urge it to retire its elephants to a sanctuary, where they can have something resembling a normal life among human caretakers who have their best interests at heart. 
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