Personal thoughts from a Toronto Zoo Elephant Keeper!
(With kind permission of the author)- Elle LePhant
Showing posts with label Toronto Zoo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Toronto Zoo. Show all posts
Monday, September 30, 2013
Monday, April 16, 2012
Toronto Zoo Elephant Update April 2012
The elephant crates have started to arrive at Toronto Zoo and yet the fate of these animals has still not been properly addressed. It has been wrong all the way down the line. Refresh your memory and read Toronto Zoo Elephants In Trouble.
No-one is in any doubt that a move elsewhere is not the right thing to do, unless of course suitable financial support were given to Toronto, but right now I, amongst so many others who actually genuinely care about these animals believe that the move to the PAWS is the wrong move to make. Euthanasia would probably be a kinder option.
Are the Toronto Zoo councillors really going to sit back and watch these animals move to somewhere where their health is compromised? Are all they really concerned about is their kickback from Bob Barker and their chance to hobnob with a bunch of ignorant celebrities? (I am not including those with a little knowledge here).
Councillor Michelle Berardinetti seems determined to ignore the Tuberculosis issue. In fact she denies that it exists. Hear it from the horses mouth here http://www.newstalk1010.com/shows/joshmatlow.aspx Go to November 6 2011 - Part 2. Councillor Berardinetti has been lamed my name dropping in my eyes. Not something I take great credence from
In 'Toronto Zoo Elephants in Trouble' I asked the question:
"Were the councillors kept in the dark over the TB question?"
Well it seems they were not. Read the three documents below. If the councillors were unaware at an early stage then they certainly not now. What are they going to do about it?
Well it seems they were not. Read the three documents below. If the councillors were unaware at an early stage then they certainly not now. What are they going to do about it?
Are elephants really any better off in the so called 'sanctuaries'? Have a think about it.
Deaths in "sanctuaries" under 47:
Ruby (Rafiki), 42 years old, PAWS (African, the funny thing is PAWS tried to claim she was 50...)
71, 26 years old, PAWS (African)
Tinkerbelle, 39 years old, PAWS (Asian)
Sabu, 30 years old, PAWS (Asian)
Barbara, 35 years old, Tennessee (Asian)
Tina, 34 years old, Tennessee (Asian)
Jenny, 34 years old, Tennessee (Asian)
Lottie, 47 years old, Tennessee (Asian)
Ned, 22 YEARS OLD, Tennessee (Asian)
Zulu, 34 years old, Tennessee (African)
The age of death in these institutions mirrors the majority of deaths in the AZA... (Source: Wayne Jackson)
It is not to late to save the Toronto animals. To have their wellbeing decided by the people who love and know them best, the keepers and staff of Toronto Zoo.
Read More About Elephants
Monday, November 7, 2011
Support The Toronto Zoo Elephant Keepers
Please support the Toronto Zoo Keepers in giving them a voice and part in deciding what will happen to the animals they love. The decision should never have been made the way it was or rested with a bunch of elected councillors who have not a clue or much of a care about Elephants.
The Elephant Keepers, all of the Toronto Zoo Keepers care about their animals. Having worked as an Elephant Keeper I know that it is not just animal care but that there is a tremendous emotional bond, love even between keeper and animal. The Keepers decision will be the right one (even if it turns out to be the same as the councillors) because it will be made by people who know, who understand and who are experts in their field. Support the keepers in getting their voice heard.
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Sunday, May 8, 2011
Scrawler: Keep the elephants — get the Jaguars
Scrawler: Keep the elephants — get the Jaguars
Anybody else thinking of telling the people trying to hijack our elephants to go to hell?
TV legend Bob Barker and other phony American animal activists attempted fleecing of three Toronto Zoo elephants seems to me to be nothing more than an attempt to help grow the population at a bizarre elephant sanctuary population in Tennessee or California.
And you bet the price is right.
One of the suggestions is for Toronto taxpayers to foot a $50,000 bill to transport Toka, Thika and Iringa to a 2,700 acre fenced-in compound and so called “retirement” in Tennessee.
Generations of Toronto Zoo goers won’t get to experience them ever again and an American sanctuary will get the elephants for free.
Call it what you want but it looks like nothing more than an elephant zoo to me. Oh, sure, the Tennessee sanctuary says it’s not open to visitors but read the fine print.
“By pledging $2,000 or more each year for five consecutive years, you may enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour of the Sanctuary,” their website says. “This visit includes a tour of our elephant houses as well as the expansive habitat... Patron-level donors are invited to tour the facility through our VIP Pledge Program, but the Sanctuary is closed to the general public.”
It costs just $23 to see the elephants here. The Tennessee captivity operation looks more like an elephant zoo for the rich.
There’s even a gift shop with their elephants on T-shirts for sale.
Sure they want our elephants. Their website shows nine of the 24 elephants they display pictures of have died.
Instead of giving ours away for nothing, the zoo should make the necessary improvements here and try to get as many visitors to the Toronto Zoo in the years to come to help with the expense.
Our council should be telling these do-gooders to stick it.
If the Toronto Zoo — which certainly is a poacher free zone unlike what these elephants would have to deal with in their natural habitats — gives in, who knows what sanctuary of the week will pop for monkeys, lions or giraffes next?
The very future of the zoo is at stake here and instead of letting politically-correct wackos slowly dismantle its allure, stand up and tell these opportunists to pack up their trunk and go home.
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Read More and especially the comments: Scrawler: Keep the elephants — get the Jaguars Toronto & GTA News Toronto Sun#disqus_thread
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Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Toronto Zoo to decide what to do with its elephants
A newly released survey of Toronto Zoo visitors has found that even without elephants, 85 per cent of respondents would still attend.
The survey of 800 visitors last summer comes as the zoo grapples with declining attendance and what to do with its three remaining elephants.
Prompted by a cluster of elephant deaths, the zoo’s board recently hired a consultant to explore the animals’ role.
The question of whether to keep them or send them elsewhere will likely be decided soon with a staff report presenting “options’’ due in the next few months, zoo CEO John Tracogna said after Monday’s board meeting.
“It is an important decision. We want to get it right,’’ Tracogna said.
Critics pushing for the animals to be sent to a sanctuary argue elephants experience high mortality rates in Toronto because it’s too cold and they lack adequate space to roam.
Others wanting them to remain say the elephants are important for research and education, and are an endangered species in the wild.
Amid these arguments, the zoo is exploring whether to expand and renovate its elephant exhibit, an undertaking that would add heated floors, for example. The price is about $40 million.
“It’s not just about the elephants, but the whole exhibit and where it fits into the strategic plan for the overall (zoo). It ($40 million) is a fare chunk of cash,’’ said Joe Torzsok, newly appointed chair of the zoo board.
But Councillor Shelley Carroll wants to move the elephants to a California sanctuary as soon as the spring.
Though not a zoo board member, she told Monday’s meeting that visitors to elephant exhibits at zoos “don’t have much to see except the animals swaying back and forth in pain.” They act that way because they don’t have the space to roam and relieve their joints, Carroll argued. Foot problems are also common for elephants in captivity.
Carroll has already presented a petition to city council with more than 1,500 signatures urging the animals be removed from the zoo.
“The zoo really needs to do it now,’’ she said in an interview.
There’s no question people love elephants, especially when they breed. In 2009, the Oregon Zoo welcomed a new baby elephant named Samudra and saw attendance numbers reach 1.6 million, an all-time high in 122 years.
But there has been mounting pressure over recent years for zoos to expand their facilities or eliminate elephant exhibits altogether. Closures have occurred everywhere from the Bronx Zoo to the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland. In India last year, the Central Zoo Authority disallowed all zoos and circuses from keeping elephants, forcing an estimated 140 to be relocated to natural parks and sanctuaries.
But zoos that have lost elephants haven’t necessarily been losing out on visitors. After the Detroit Zoo retired its elephants in 2005, attendance actually rose by about 4 per cent in 2006. Performance fared even better the following year, with a 13 per cent increase compared to 2005.
Rob Laidlaw, executive director of Zoocheck Canada, said many in the zoo industry view elephants as a “box-office species” crucial for drawing visitors. Not so, he argues.
“I think the zoo has created a bit of a mythology within its own industry about elephants and certain animals being something of an absolute necessity,” Laidlaw said. “As long as animals are moving and doing something, people don’t really care if it’s a lizard or a monkey or a zebra.”
Toronto Zoo officials wouldn’t comment on how losing its elephants might affect attendance. But at the African Lion Safari in Cambridge, the elephants ......
Read Full StoryToronto Zoo to decide what to do with its elephants - thestar.com
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Sunday, December 27, 2009
Zoos Must Review
Zoo industry must review operations, observers say after incidents
Although a recession and several controversial animal deaths this year weren’t enough to stop Canadians from visiting zoos in increasing numbers, some observers say the industry needs to learn how to stay relevant in a society growing more skeptical about keeping animals in captivity.
In the last 50 years, some zoos have attempted to shift away from menagerie-style venues where parents take their children to gawk at caged tigers and giraffes to almost museum-style exhibits that encourage animal lovers to learn and interact with different species.
Yet, some critics say the industry is not doing enough, is taking too long to implement change and putting animal welfare at risk.
Those concerns have been fuelled by a wave of incidents at zoos across Canada that have left animals dead or threatened. Most recently, the Calgary Zoo president announced an independent review of its animal operations following the suspension of an employee over the death of a female capybara, a species of giant rodent.
It was killed after getting caught in a hydraulic door.
Industry watchdog Zoocheck Canada said the attempts by traditional zoos to provide “window dressing” for the public visiting their facilities is a farce, and instead, officials should spend money on creating sanctuaries for their animals.
“Animal conservation breeding centres and retirement centres are different because they place the animals first, the staff second and the public last,” said Rob Laidlaw, the group’s executive director in Toronto.
“They make the biological and behavioural needs of the animals as a priority.”
The animals at facilities such as the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Haliburton Wolf Centre in northern Ontario are allowed to roam in large areas alone all day, live in real environments and are given the chance to do normal activities like roll in the grass and forage.
Some only allow visitors on certain days during specific hours to avoid placing undue stress on the animals. Other facilities only house animals that are indigenous to their climates.
“A lot of zoos are trying to do far too much. They have far too many animals. They make claims that these animals are well-treated but that’s just greenwashing,” said Laidlaw.
“In an ideal world, no animal would be held in captivity but that’s not going to happen. We need to move away from fancy exhibits and the public needs to change its mindset.”
Ian Duncan, who sits on the animal care committee at the Toronto Zoo, said for zoos to succeed, they need to specialize in specific species and forget the concept of having large collections of many animals.
“Gradually zoos have assumed more of an education role, a research role, a conservation role,” said Duncan, a retired animal behaviour professor at the University of Guelph. “All these things will increase in the future into a decision for zoos to only keep one or two animals.”
By not trying to cater to too many animals, zoos, such as one in Toledo, Ohio, have been able to recreate microenvironments for specific species, like toads only found in a two-hectare swath in Tanzania, he said.
Bill Peters of the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums said there’s been a “real dramatic change” on the concept of what zoos are and their societal contributions.
Out of an estimated 300 zoos — including sanctuaries, wilderness parks and roadside petting attractions — across the country, only 26 have volunteered to be accredited by CAZA standards.
Peters said the lack of mandatory regulations surrounding the zoo industry is one of its downfalls.
Nevertheless, Canadians are still heading out to visit zoos.
“Most of our members reported increased visitorship in the last year even though there were economic constraints,” said Peters, who noted the concept of the traditional zoo will never die.
That’s because the public needs to maintain a real-life connection with wildlife, especially now in our increasingly
>>>READ FULL ARTICLE>>>
Although a recession and several controversial animal deaths this year weren’t enough to stop Canadians from visiting zoos in increasing numbers, some observers say the industry needs to learn how to stay relevant in a society growing more skeptical about keeping animals in captivity.
In the last 50 years, some zoos have attempted to shift away from menagerie-style venues where parents take their children to gawk at caged tigers and giraffes to almost museum-style exhibits that encourage animal lovers to learn and interact with different species.
Yet, some critics say the industry is not doing enough, is taking too long to implement change and putting animal welfare at risk.
Those concerns have been fuelled by a wave of incidents at zoos across Canada that have left animals dead or threatened. Most recently, the Calgary Zoo president announced an independent review of its animal operations following the suspension of an employee over the death of a female capybara, a species of giant rodent.
It was killed after getting caught in a hydraulic door.
Industry watchdog Zoocheck Canada said the attempts by traditional zoos to provide “window dressing” for the public visiting their facilities is a farce, and instead, officials should spend money on creating sanctuaries for their animals.
“Animal conservation breeding centres and retirement centres are different because they place the animals first, the staff second and the public last,” said Rob Laidlaw, the group’s executive director in Toronto.
“They make the biological and behavioural needs of the animals as a priority.”
The animals at facilities such as the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Haliburton Wolf Centre in northern Ontario are allowed to roam in large areas alone all day, live in real environments and are given the chance to do normal activities like roll in the grass and forage.
Some only allow visitors on certain days during specific hours to avoid placing undue stress on the animals. Other facilities only house animals that are indigenous to their climates.
“A lot of zoos are trying to do far too much. They have far too many animals. They make claims that these animals are well-treated but that’s just greenwashing,” said Laidlaw.
“In an ideal world, no animal would be held in captivity but that’s not going to happen. We need to move away from fancy exhibits and the public needs to change its mindset.”
Ian Duncan, who sits on the animal care committee at the Toronto Zoo, said for zoos to succeed, they need to specialize in specific species and forget the concept of having large collections of many animals.
“Gradually zoos have assumed more of an education role, a research role, a conservation role,” said Duncan, a retired animal behaviour professor at the University of Guelph. “All these things will increase in the future into a decision for zoos to only keep one or two animals.”
By not trying to cater to too many animals, zoos, such as one in Toledo, Ohio, have been able to recreate microenvironments for specific species, like toads only found in a two-hectare swath in Tanzania, he said.
Bill Peters of the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums said there’s been a “real dramatic change” on the concept of what zoos are and their societal contributions.
Out of an estimated 300 zoos — including sanctuaries, wilderness parks and roadside petting attractions — across the country, only 26 have volunteered to be accredited by CAZA standards.
Peters said the lack of mandatory regulations surrounding the zoo industry is one of its downfalls.
Nevertheless, Canadians are still heading out to visit zoos.
“Most of our members reported increased visitorship in the last year even though there were economic constraints,” said Peters, who noted the concept of the traditional zoo will never die.
That’s because the public needs to maintain a real-life connection with wildlife, especially now in our increasingly
>>>READ FULL ARTICLE>>>
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tara the elephant dies at Toronto Zoo
An elephant at the Toronto Zoo died this morning after zoo staff found her lying down, unable to stand up.
Tara, the 41-year-old "matriarch" of the elephant herd, had not exhibited any recent health concerns, Eric Cole, supervisor of the zoo's African Savanna, said. She was found by animal care staff shortly before 8 a.m. Monday morning, who tried in vain to lift the 8,500-pound animal back onto her feet. They were unable to hoist her back up, and she died at 11 a.m.
Tara was out in public as recently as last weekend, Cole said, and appeared to be doing well. "She was in good form, chasing the others and being her usual bossy self," he said. "She wasn't lethargic; she was eating."
The zoo will conduct a post-mortem examination with the assistance of the Ontario Veterinary College to determine Tara's exact cause of death. According to the zoo, the average lifespan of an elephant is between 40 and 45 years.
Another elephant, Tessa, died at Toronto Zoo five months ago after being pushed over by another elephant. However, Cole ruled that out as a possibility in this case, saying Tara was alone in her pen at the time.
Tara has lived at Toronto Zoo since 1974, arriving from southern Africa shortly after the zoo opened, and as many as 50 million people have visited Tara since. According to Cole, she had been "the boss" of the elephant herd for the past four years since the death of Patsy, the herd's previous matriarch.
"If there was a disagreement between other elephants, she would break it up," Cole said. "She liked to be the one in control. She'd go over and just by getting close to whoever she was going to interact with, they'd run away. Sometimes...
>>>READ FULL STORY>>>
Tara, the 41-year-old "matriarch" of the elephant herd, had not exhibited any recent health concerns, Eric Cole, supervisor of the zoo's African Savanna, said. She was found by animal care staff shortly before 8 a.m. Monday morning, who tried in vain to lift the 8,500-pound animal back onto her feet. They were unable to hoist her back up, and she died at 11 a.m.
Tara was out in public as recently as last weekend, Cole said, and appeared to be doing well. "She was in good form, chasing the others and being her usual bossy self," he said. "She wasn't lethargic; she was eating."
The zoo will conduct a post-mortem examination with the assistance of the Ontario Veterinary College to determine Tara's exact cause of death. According to the zoo, the average lifespan of an elephant is between 40 and 45 years.
Another elephant, Tessa, died at Toronto Zoo five months ago after being pushed over by another elephant. However, Cole ruled that out as a possibility in this case, saying Tara was alone in her pen at the time.
Tara has lived at Toronto Zoo since 1974, arriving from southern Africa shortly after the zoo opened, and as many as 50 million people have visited Tara since. According to Cole, she had been "the boss" of the elephant herd for the past four years since the death of Patsy, the herd's previous matriarch.
"If there was a disagreement between other elephants, she would break it up," Cole said. "She liked to be the one in control. She'd go over and just by getting close to whoever she was going to interact with, they'd run away. Sometimes...
>>>READ FULL STORY>>>
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