Import of 18 Elephants from Swazliland to U.S. Zoos Opposed by Elephant Experts

“The capture and removal of wild elephants from their home ranges and social groups is appalling and archaic, and the threat to kill elephants unless permits are issued is beyond unethical.”  – Dr. Joyce Poole

Elephants in Swaziland

A proposed import of 18 elephants from Swazliland by the Dallas Zoo in Texas, Henry Door Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska; and Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kansas,  has more than 70 elephant experts joining forces as the zoos’ request for a permit to import the elephants was published in the U.S. Federal Register.today.  The experts have announced their outrage and opposition of the removal of the wild elephants from their home ranges and social groups.

Dr. Joyce Poole, Co-Founder of Elephant/Voices and world expert on elephant social behavior/communication and studying elephants for 40 years stated, “The capture and removal….is appalling and archaic, and the threat to kill elephants unless permits are issued is beyond unethical,”

If the permits are not issued, Big Game Parks, a family-run organization which has been managing wildlife in three of its protected areas in Swazliland with no apparent government oversight, has threatened to cull the 18 elephants.  They claim the elephants are destroying the landscape in parks and impacting the rhino population.

“The three U.S. zoos have presented the world with an indefensible and misleading choice: kill the elephants or subject them to a lifetime of unnatural captivity. The real answer is to keep them wild and protected in Africa,” said Ed Stewart, president of the Performing Animal Welfare Society, which established the first U.S. elephant sanctua

“This is the second time in just over a decade that Swaziiland’s Big Game Parks has looked to captivity as a supposed solution for apparent mismanagement of its national parks,” explained Adam M. Roberts, CEO of Born Free USA.. “Exporting wild elephants to zoos in America remains inhumane and short-sighted. It is shameful that the three U.S. zoos would exploit the unethical wildlife management practices in Swaziland for their own gain.”

“Elephants are highly intelligent, sensitive, and social individuals,” stated Dr. Poole. “Nothing can justify tearing young elephants away from their mothers and social groups and incarcerating them for the rest of their lives. The most humane alternative for their care and survival is to remain on the continent of their birth in conditions of safety and greatest practical freedom.”

“The abduction of baby elephants for export to zoos around the world is breaking the hearts of Africans and non-Africans alike. It’s time for it to stop,” concluded Dr. Paula Kahumbu, one of Africa’s best-known wildlife conservationists and CEO of Kenya-based Wildlife Direct.

The experts’ statement points out that Big Game Parks and the zoo partners have offered no evidence that they have explored options for relocation of the elephants to other parks or sanctuaries within Africa – even though it offers the promise of minimal harm and distress to the elephants, and the prospect of a natural life.

“Zoos have traditionally raided the wild to have wild animals for display,” says David Hancocks, former director of four major zoos; two in the U.S. and two in Australia. “Those raiding days should be over, especially for species whose social and behavioral needs cannot be met in captivity, such as elephants and orcas.  The present proposal is dressed up as a ‘rescue’ but in truth is merely a ploy to cover the fact that zoos collectively are unable to maintain a sustainable breeding population of elephants. They will have to return again and again to take more elephants from the wild and, inevitably, keep them in inadequate environments where they will live inadequate lives, and die before their time.”

View the complete statement and list of experts at:http://www.bornfreeusa.org/swazilandelephants. 

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