Friends of Animals (FOA)
February 2016
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) needs to get its head out of the sand and recognize society’s changing view of captivity that is being fueled by a greater recognition of the detrimental impacts to elephants captive in zoos, circuses and other entertainment-related facilities. Many zoos around the world, including Detroit Zoo and San Francisco Zoo, have closed their elephant exhibits.
Friends of Animals (FoA) has filed a lawsuit against the United States
Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for granting permits to the Dallas Zoo,
the Sedwick County Zoo in Kansas, and Omaha, Nebraska’s Henry Doorly Zoo to
import 18 African elephants from Swaziland.
If the zoos succeed in their objective, they will be removing more than
one third of all the remaining elephants in Swaziland, leaving behind
approximately 21.
“The failure here of the U.S. government was to not do a National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis that examines the emotional and
physical well-being of the 18 animals that are going to be forcefully
removed from their homes, families and extended families and brought to the
United States and shoved in a zoo,” said Michael Harris, director of Friends
of Animals’ Wildlife Law Program, adding that to his knowledge no one has
made this challenge in court before.
According to Harris, “USFWS is turning a blind eye to the growing
scientific consensus that elephants are highly intelligent, social and
emotional beings. The trauma of being ripped from their families in the
wild, transported halfway around the world and forced to live the remainder
of their lives in captivity will have an everlasting effect on these
animals. Evidence shows that they will suffer from depression, anxiousness,
mood swings and fear. They also face a high risk of disease and disability.
No wonder it has been shown that zoo elephants simply don't live as long as
those in the wild.”
The lawsuit states that in issuing a permit for this transfer, USFWS
violated its mandatory duty under NEPA to fully evaluate and disclose these
impacts to elephants.
Harris pointed out that this type of information, contained within an
official government document, could influence USFWS’s own internal review of
the permit under various international and federal laws that require one to
evaluate whether the proposed transfer would be detrimental to these 18
elephants and/or elephants as a species. This information, publically
disclosed, might also impact the decision-making of the zoos, causing them
to rethink their actions. Finally, this information might also influence
third-party stake holders to invest resources into finding avenues to keep
these animals in the wild.
Instead USFWS chose to rubberstamp what is simply a business transaction. The zoos involved have invested more than $25 million in elephant exhibits and need elephants to fill them. Likewise, Swaziland, which is a monarchy run by a king, is looking to make a profit on their sale. And this is not the first time. In 2003, Swaziland sold 11 elephants to U.S. zoos for a profit of about 133,000 U.S. dollars.”
USFWS needs to get its head out of the sand and recognize society’s
changing view of captivity that is being fueled by a greater recognition of
the detrimental impacts to elephants captive in zoos, circuses and other
entertainment-related facilities. Many zoos around the world, including
Detroit Zoo and San Francisco Zoo, have closed their elephant exhibits.
For more information, click here to read the official complaint (PDF).
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