Are wild elephants still captured and imported to U.S. zoos?
A Wildlife Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM PAWS Performing Animal Welfare Society
February 2022

Wild captures are opposed by conservationists around the world. It’s time to pressure zoos into taking a moral stand against the capture of wild elephants and lend greater support for protecting elephants and their habitats.

Most people believe elephants are no longer captured and imported to the U.S. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In 2003, 11 African elephants were captured in Swaziland and imported by the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and ZooTampa in Florida. In 2016, 17 captured African elephants – also from Swaziland – were flown to the Dallas Zoo, Sedgwick County Zoo in Kansas, and Henry Doorly Zoo in Nebraska.

In 2019, a group of U.S. zoos submitted a permit request to the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife for the import of 28 elephants from Zimbabwe. The request was later withdrawn amid controversy over the import. Zimbabwe had already sold over 100 elephant calves to zoos in China, where they were suffering in poor conditions.

The captures continue

Namibia is now preparing to export elephants, who were sold at auction last year – and they won’t say where they’re going. Already, 37 elephants have been captured, and the country is in the process of capturing 57 more elephants, according to National Geographic. A government official claims they are capturing elephant groups, as if that makes their actions any less contemptible. While it appears that none of these elephants are coming to the U.S., this action, and those before it, are a moral outrage.

We already know how “modern” captures takes place, thanks to video from a 2017 round-up of elephant calves in Zimbabwe. Helicopters target an elephant family, then fire a sedative from a rifle at the younger elephants. Once a calf falls, the helicopter swoops low to stop the family from coming to the calf’s aid. A ground team binds up the sedated calves and drags them onto trucks. In the video, one handler kicks a baby elephant in the head.

Because elephants do not thrive in captivity, the number of Asian and African elephants in U.S. zoos is unsustainable. So they will continue to plunder the wild, causing unthinkable harm. This is not conservation. Legitimate conservation efforts focus on protecting elephants where they live, rather than filling zoo displays.

Wild captures are opposed by conservationists around the world. It’s time to pressure zoos into taking a moral stand against the capture of wild elephants and lend greater support for protecting elephants and their habitats.

PAWS has long fought against elephant captures and imports. Stay tuned for action you can take to protect wild elephants.

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