Montgomery Zoo: Alabama elephant deaths not related to breeding
Associated Press Writer
Published: July 3, 2009
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A Montgomery Zoo veterinarian says the final necropsy reports show the deaths of a 23-year-old African elephant and her 1-month-old calf were not related to breeding elephants in zoos, a conclusion that critics dispute.
Zoo veterinarian Jack Kottwitz said the report showed the mother elephant, Mary, died Aug. 16, 2008, from an abdominal problem with intestinal rupture and that she would have died in the wild.
She died three days after giving birth. Her male calf, weighing 200-plus pounds, died from a fungus infection, known as candida, resulting in heart failure, according to the necropsy.
The reports, completed last October, were recently released to The Associated Press by the city attorney.
A California-based group, In Defense of Animals, seeks to ban elephant breeding in zoos, contending the restricted space of captivity can create health problems during pregnancy, including digestive disorders like those that led to Mary’s death.
The organization referred questions to Mel Richardson, a veterinarian based in Paradise, Calif., who said the findings show the mother’s death was related to breeding.
“You create a lot of abdominal pressure during the birthing process so you can easily see it’s related to the birthing process,“ Richardson said.
He agreed she would have died if she had an intestinal rupture in the wild, but said elephants in the wild are in extremely good physical condition and have strong abdominal muscles. Richardson said Mary, who had arthritis, was not as healthy as her wild counterparts.
“An intestinal rupture probably would not have happened in the wild,“ he said.
Kottwitz said the mother elephant’s intestinal problem — known in medical terms as ileocecal intussusception — is a condition that can occur in male elephants.
“Obviously in male elephants there isn’t an association with the birthing process,“ Kottwitz saud.
He said the necropsy report also showed the timing of the abdominal problem suggested no link to the birth.
Kottwitz said the calf’s infection is common in humans, but rare in a baby elephant. He said the baby, which was bottle-fed and cared for by zoo staff, would have had a better chance of survival if his mother lived.
Richardson said the calf’s death probably wasn’t preventable and there was no way the zoo could have prevented the infection.
“The calf, like a lot of orphans, doesn’t have any protective immunity,“ Richardson said. “The zoo did everything they could. The circumstances the elephants were in was the problem.“
Kottwitz said breeding elephants in zoos is important to prevent the animals from becoming extinct, though Richardson argued that doesn’t help elephants in the wild that are constantly losing habitat. He praised zoos like those in North Carolina and San Diego, where the animals have more room to roam.
“They need to walk long distances, dig and do all the other things elephants are supposed to do,“ Richardson said. “What zoos should be doing is spending time giving animals as much room as they can.“
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How much money have zoos raised for elephant conservation? Would that money be raised if zoos did not exist? How much awareness do zoos raise about wild animals and their conservation issues? Can you even quantify it? It’s very easy to criticise. It is not so easy to see the bigger picture and change the mind sets of millions of people. Which is what zoos do…. Do you think the people who work in zoos, devoting their lives to the animals they care for are going to act irresponsibly and kill the animals they spend there days with? Conservation begins at home, not in the wild… each and every person can change their behaviour and save animals world wide, but thats too difficult, it’s easier to criticise about things that you don’t understand isn’t it and lay the responsibility at the door of the “wild”.
Elephant conservation will never be accomplished by keeping and breeding them in zoos. The zoo industry debunked that so-called “Noah’s Ark” theorty 14 years ago, acknowledging that it was neither practical nor possible to save species like elephants from extinction that way. They would have to be saved in their natural ranges if they were going to be saved at all. However, zoos today are desperately trying to reverse their declining captive elephant populations (caused by zoo living conditions and disease). Their marketing strategy is to claim that their breeding program to boost captive display animals is somehow part of wild elephant conservation efforts. It isn’t. It is a reckless, irresponsible and deadly program that continues to cost the lives of countless elephant mothers and calves. The USDA should order the end to zoo and circus elephant breeding. The death statistics alone would justify such a move.
How many elephant deaths will it take for the public to demand elephants be retired to a sanctuary and for breeding to end. Zoos are too small and deny everything that is instinctual to these migratory, social, and highly intelligent individuals. The zoo environment is killing elephants just as poachers and loss of habitat are doing in the wild. It is the same crime: shortening the elephant lifespan by decades. Enough of our selfish need to be entertained by seeing an elephant on exhibit! Conservation should take place in the wild, and with all the awe-inspiring shows about elephants, children can learn about them without their suffering. Let’s teach our children that we made the humane decision to allow the elephants to live in peace, at the 2,700 acre elephant.
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