Stabbed, Jabbed, Poked and Hooked
Six Flags Elephants Controlled Through Fear and Pain
Living in an amusement park is no fun for the seven elephants at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom.
If you visit the “Elephant Encounter,” notice the bullhooks in the hands of the elephant keepers. Bullhooks are shaped like fireplace pokers with a sharp steel hook at the end.
Bullhooks are used to stab, hook and hit the elephants in sensitive parts of the body. (Although elephant skin appears tough, it is so delicate that an elephant can feel the pain of an insect bite).
In public, keepers will prod the elephants lightly, In private keepers at zoos and circuses have been witnessed forcefully stabbing the hook in the soft tissue behind the ears, inside the mouth, around the anus, and in tender spots under the chin.
Six Flags keepers use force to train and maintain dominance over the elephants and make them do unnatural tricks and give elephant rides.
Six Flags crams elephants – who naturally walk 10 miles or more a day – into small spaces that cause them to develop arthritis and foot disease.
Recently, five elephants have died here from causes that include: severe arthritis and feet so infected they bled and oozed pus; massive infection from a dead calf decomposing in the mother’s womb, and an elephant herpes infection in a 2-year old baby elephant who was taken from his mother.
Elephants are highly intelligent and can live 60-70 years. The Six Flags Seven --Liz (43), Taj (67), Valerie (25), Tava (29), Malika (20), Joyce (22), Bertie (26) – deserve better than decades more of life in a noisy, crowded amusement park.
Don’t Get Taken for a Ride!
Elephant rides and shows are dangerous AND cruel... Six Flags is the only American Zoo and Aquarium Association-accredited facility in the country that allows elephant rides. For public safety and humane reasons, other zoos stopped elephant rides long ago.
Not only are the elephant rides monotonous for these highly intelligent animals – day after day walking in a circle for hours on end – they are also dangerous for the people who climb on the elephants’ backs. The constant stress of living in an artificial environment of a circus, zoo, or amusement park can drive elephants mad and cause them to rampage, causing serious human injuries. Since 1990 "performing" elephants have killed 12 people and injured 125
March 5, 2006/Marlborough, Massachusetts: An Asian elephant named Minnie with the Commerford Petting Zoo injured two employees while giving rides. As children were being loaded onto her back, she became agitated and suddenly swung her head toward the two employees, shifting her weight and pinning them against the loading ramp.
August 25, 2005/Mt. Pleasant Township, Pennsylvania: An Asian elephant named Julie, touring with Wambold’s Circus Menagerie, suddenly wrapped her trunk around a woman’s wrist and yanked her as she reached out toward the elephant from a crowd of people feeding the animal at the county fair. She was treated at an emergency room for a sprain and possibly torn ligaments.
April 13, 2005/Polk City, Florida: Ringling Bros. elephant handler David Mannes was airlifted to a medical center to treat a fractured pelvis and soft tissue wounds to his arm after being knocked down and kicked by an Asian elephant named Tova while feeding the elephants at Ringling’s breeding compound.
January 31, 2005/Fort Wayne, Indiana: An elephant trainer with Tarzan Zerbini Circus was trampled to death by one of the Asian elephants as the animals were being loaded into a trailer following performances at the Mizpah Shrine Circus.
August 29, 2004/El Paso, Texas: An elephant with the George Carden Circus attacked an arena worker following a performance at the El Maida Shrine Circus. The elephant knocked the man down, threw him into a wall, and pinned him against a fence. He sustained a dislocated shoulder, a torn rotator cuff, and nerve injury, which required surgery for repair and reconstruction and resulted in more than $15,000 in medical bills.
July 4, 2004/Clinton, Iowa: An African elephant named Nosey, with the Liebel Family Circus, attacked a circus worker, hitting him with her tusk, lifting him off his feet and throwing him down an incline. The worker was rushed to the hospital and received stitches for a head injury.
Think it couldn’t happen here?
Think again.
In June 2004, an African elephant named Misha gored and critically injured a keeper at Six Flags in Vallejo, California. Misha’s tusk went right through the keeper’s body. Misha had suffered greatly at the hands of Six Flags. Finally she’d had enough.
Six Flags Elephant Pushed to the Breaking Point..
...then Shipped to Utah. While at Six Flags in Vallejo, Misha was beaten up by other elephants, and, for more than four years, suffered a painful
and massive abscess on her jaw. At one point, Misha’s abscess had a hole that was eight inches deep. Six Flags’ treatment included opening the abscess with a hoof knife and metal feeding tube. One time, the knife even broke and the tip was left in the wound.
Despite Misha’s “massively swollen” jaw, in May 2001 she was forced to repeatedly undergo artificial insemination using a surgical procedure that involves cutting a slit in the area below the anus. While heavily sedated for one attempt because she was “uncooperative,” a second procedure was done the next day with no sedation. As often happens, the incision site became painful and infected. By June, the site had begun to heal and she was noted to be “no longer urinating through the [incision] site.”
In Dec. 2001, Misha was confirmed pregnant. During her entire pregnancy, her chin wound was infected, draining and painful. In March 2003, Misha gave birth to a dead calf. Less than a year later, she was again artificially inseminated surgically, and the incision site again became infected. She did not become pregnant this time.
By June, 2003, Misha had had enough. She gored a trainer, piercing his body with her tusk. Miraculously, the trainer survived. Misha was isolated and kept alone for almost two years. In April 2005, she was moved to Hogle Park Zoo in Utah. Her chin abscess was still chronic and draining at that time.
All Six Flags Animals Suffer
Keeping wild animals in an amusement park is just not right. Unnatural conditions, cramped quarters, and noisy rides and crowds stress out animals at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom and make them sick.
Dozens of animals – including 5 elephants, 2 orcas, and 4 dolphins – have died here in the past decade. We need to send the Six Flags Seven to a sanctuary before it’s too late.
IDA Issues a Report
IDA is issuing an urgent plea to the City of Vallejo to send the elephants at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom to a sanctuary. IDA held a press conference on June 28, 2007 to issue a report on the state of the elephants at the North Bay amusement park. (Read the report)
Citing medical records and eyewitness testimony, the organization disclosed evidence that the elephants are victims of abusive treatment and are ailing as a direct result of the inadequate, stressful, and barren conditions at the park. IDA also urged an immediate end to shows that may exacerbate elephants’ physical ailments.
What You Can Do
1) Please contact Six Flags and tell them to focus on rides and send the elephants to a sanctuary! Urge them to start by sending the elephants to a sanctuary. Also tell them that as long as the elephants are here, the cruel bullhook must be banned!
Daniel M. Snyder, Six Flags Chairman
Washington Redskins
21300 Redskins Park Dr.
Ashburn, VA 20147
Fax: (703) 726-7124
Mark Shapiro, Six Flags President & CEO
1540 Broadway, 15th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Tel: (212) 652-9403
Fax: (212) 354-3089
Email: mshapiro@sftp.com
"Take Action" to let the City of Vallejo (which “owns” most of the elephants) know how you feel:
Mayor Anthony Intintoli
555 Santa Clara Street
Vallejo, California 94590
Tel: (707) 648-4377
Fax: (707) 642-4687
Email: mayor@ci.vallejo.ca.us
2) Join IDA’s Elephant Task Force
IDA is seeking volunteers who are interested in organizing leafleting activities at Six Flags and other zoos that have elephants. You will receive periodic updates and calls to action to help elephants currently suffering in our country.
Please visit www.helpelephants.com or contact Melissa Gonzalez for more information.
Tel: (415) 448-0078 or Email: melissa@idausa.org