Surviving Elephant Should Be Sent to a Sanctuary

San Rafael, Calif.—In a letter rushed to Abilene Mayor Norm Archibald this morning, international animal protection organization In Defense of Animals (IDA) called for the closure of the Abilene Zoo’s elephant exhibit, following the death of Tanzy, a 49-year-old African elephant. The organization urged the Mayor to relocate the surviving elephant, Tanya, to an elephant sanctuary.

“Tanzy suffered for years from painful physical and psychological conditions caused directly by the inadequate and unnatural zoo environment in which she was held for decades,” wrote Elliot M. Katz, DVM, IDA president. “Her sad life and death should serve as a wake-up call to zoos to stop holding these magnificent animals in exhibits that cause them to suffer, become sick, and die.”

In the last years of her life, Tanzy was maintained on a steady diet of painkillers for degenerative arthritis and the human anti-anxiety medication Xanax to combat aggression and severe anxiety that caused her to refuse to leave the barn for weeks at a time in 2004.

Tanzy lived for nearly 20 years in the Abilene Zoo’s woefully inadequate elephant exhibit which provides an outdoor yard of less than a half-acre in size and indoor, 24’x15’ concrete-floored pens. By contrast, wild elephants walk 10 or more miles a day over varied terrain, activity that is necessary to maintain foot and joint health.

Abilene Zoo medical records, obtained by IDA under Texas public records law, indicate that in addition to painful arthritis, Tanzy also suffered from foot problems, including deep holes in her foot pads and “chronic irritation [on her feet] from water and urine pooling in floor.” An estimated 62 percent of elephants in U.S. zoos suffer from foot disease and nearly half suffer from arthritis, a result of inadequate and unnatural exhibits that prevent adequate movement and force elephants to stand for decades on hard unyielding surfaces like concrete and compacted earth.

Zoo medical records also reveal that Tanzy and Tanya had a history of extreme aggression toward each other. Aggression in free-ranging elephants is rare, especially in females, but it is all too common in zoos where space is deficient and stress levels are high.

IDA also blasted the Zoo for its public misrepresentations regarding elephant lifespan. A natural elephant lifespan is similar to a human’s - 60-70 years. At 49, Tanzy was only an elderly elephant by zoo standards, IDA said, noting that in the wild female elephants can reproduce into their 50’s.

“Inadequate zoo conditions are cutting short elephant lives. It is too late for Tanzy,” concluded Katz, “but it’s not too late for the Abilene Zoo to do the right thing for Tanya by sending her to a spacious and naturalistic elephant sanctuary and closing its elephant exhibit. It’s time for Abilene Zoo to recognize that it has neither the space nor natural conditions that elephants need to thrive.”