Two Zoos Cancel Abusive Elephant Transfer
An Entertainment Abuses Article from All-Creatures.org

FROM IDA In Defense of Animals
March 2021

Dirty deals like this one expose the zoo industry's powerful role in driving U.S. and international trade in traumatized elephants who suffer from serial “transfer trauma,” abusive breeding, and endless captivity.

Fort Worth Zoo in Texas (pictured) has canceled a $2 million deal with African Lion Safari in Ontario after they were ranked #1 and #2 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America. Photo: Wasif Malik/Flickr

 Fort Worth Zoo in Texas has canceled a $2 million deal with African Lion Safari in Ontario, Canada - a revelation that came to light after the zoos were ranked as #1 and #2 on the list of the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America by In Defense of Animals. Two mother elephants have been spared separation from their two young calves.

We welcome news that Fort Worth Zoo’s plans to purchase Nellie and Emily from African Lion Safari have been canceled,” said In Defense of Animals Elephant Campaign Coordinator, Will Anderson.

“This deal would have caused many elephants a great deal of trauma and put a dangerous price on the head of every wild and captive elephant, including those at circuses which profit from sales to zoos. Elephants die faster in captivity than they can reproduce, leading desperate zoos to buy elephants and cruelly separate elephants for breeding purposes.

Zoo exhibits cause elephants misery and diseases because they are not suited to captivity. We encourage all zoos to acknowledge the suffering caused to elephants by captivity and to commit to shutting down their exhibits.

We recommend one final transfer for all the elephants at Fort Worth Zoo and African Lion Safari: to a GFAS- accredited sanctuary where they will never be bred, exhibited to tourists, or face the threat of being separated from their friends and family.

Had this sale gone through, it would have been the most lucrative elephant deal ever known. Dirty deals like this one expose the zoo industry's powerful role in driving U.S. and international trade in traumatized elephants who suffer from serial “transfer trauma,” abusive breeding, and endless captivity. It would have seen Nellie separated from her mother, and Emily from her six-year-old calf, Gigi. In the wild, females stay with their families their entire lives. Recent research has found that male elephants in the wild also have their own essential social structure that zoos violate.

Numerous zoos on 2020’s 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants list knowingly engage in “transfer abuse,” repeatedly trafficking elephants from place to place. Transfers are known to cause stress to elephants, and scientific research associates them with repetitive stereotypic behaviors known as “zoochosis.” It is considered “an important indicator of compromised welfare” and is exhibited by multiple elephants in North American zoos.

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