News Conference Thursday: Keepers Call on Oregon Zoo to Abandon Cruel Elephant Handling Practices

Zoo Bond Won't Guarantee Humane Elephant Care, Keepers Charge

Portland, Ore.—A current Oregon Zoo keeper and a former elephant keeper who worked with the zoo's elephant program manager will take aim Thursday at the Oregon Zoo's use of free contact elephant management, in which keepers use physical punishment and force to control elephants. The keepers will urge Metro-area voters to reject a $125 million zoo bond measure until the zoo adopts a safer and more humane way of managing and caring for its elephants.

What: News Conference on Oregon Zoo's Cruel Elephant Handling Practices
Where: Oregon Zoo, 4001 SW Canyon Rd, Portland (outside the front gate)
When: Thursday, October 16, 2008, 11:30 a.m.

The Oregon Zoo employs free contact management, in which keepers dominate elephants through use of the bullhook, a steel-tipped rod similar to a fireplace poker. The bullhook, also known as an ankus, is used to hit, stab and hook elephants into compliance. Abuse is inherent to this system, and half of the U.S. zoos with elephants have abandoned it in favor of the more humane protected contact management system, which is based on positive reinforcement and cooperation, not coercion.

In April 2000, the four-year-old elephant Rose-Tu sustained 176 lacerations and puncture wounds after being beaten with a bullhook at the Oregon Zoo. The elephant's abuse was so severe that the U.S. Department of Agriculture filed charges against the Oregon Zoo for Animal Welfare Act violations and the zoo paid a $10,000 fine as a result.

Although the zoo maintains that Rose's beating was an isolated incident, its own veterinary records (available at www.helpelephants.com/records) indicate that bullhook abuse has continued. In the years since the beating, bullhook wounds have been identified multiple times on at least three of the zoo's elephants.

"Cruel elephant handling practices have no place in a modern zoological institution," said Suzanne Roy, Program Director of in Defense of Animals, which is organizing the news conference. "No amount of money can buy humane elephant care as long as the Oregon Zoo uses bullhooks to force elephants into compliance. Voters should reject Measure 2696 until the zoo adopts humane handling practices and commits to housing elephants in a spacious and naturalistic environment that meets their physical and psychological needs."