Today, Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants and other advocates demonstrated in front of the Education Building of the Woodland Park Zoo where the WPZ Board members were conducting a meeting.

In the frigid 36 degrees, over 50 demonstrators chanted and held signs that demanded sanctuary for two Asian elephants, Chai and Bamboo. They thronged the building entree way and demanded that the elephants be retired and sent to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS).

WPZ closed the exhibit on Nov. 19 and announced that they plan to move the elephants to a new facility later on in 2015.

16 members of the public were granted access to the meeting. However, the rest of the public and the press were not allowed to enter.

Paige Heggie, a member of the Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, demonstrated with the crowd. She said it was disappointing that demonstrators were not allowed in the meeting.

Protesters walked in a circle and said they were mimicking what the elephants do in captivity. Photo by Shane Harms.

“This is a City park, and I thought Seattle parks were open to the public. If they (board members) are going to be in there with their special privileges and make decisions about animals that the public owns than I want to bear witness to that,” said Heggie.

The FWPZE contends that since the City turned over zoo operations to the Woodland Park Zoological Society in 2002, they have received approximately $126 million in tax dollars.

The ordinance from that 2002 partnership agreement states that the zoo resides on City property but is managed by the WPZS.

For public involvement, the ordinance states that the WPZS must give notice of a meeting one-week in advance and that “the WPZS Board Chair shall provide for a public comment period at each meeting.”

The demonstrators said that because of public affiliation and funding, they all deserve to have a voice in the meeting.

In addition, WPZ’s Chief Operations Officer, Bruce Bohmke, said that although some of the public was invited, the press was not because it was not a public meeting.

“ We are a private organization; it’s a private meeting. By contract with the City we are required to a have public comment period, which is typically 10 minutes and once that’s finished we typically go on with our meeting. It’s not officially a public meeting,” said Bohmke.

“We don’t let media in because we can’t accommodate it in the room. If we let you in or you in (pointing to the press representatives), then we have to let the TV’s in and then it’s not a private meeting.”

Bohmke said if reporters were among the first 16 waiting in line to attend the meeting and did not announce that they were with the press they would have been allowed to enter the meeting.

The people that did attend the meeting included 40 board members, WPZ staff and the 16 individuals from the public.

Bohmke said that the elephants were not on the agenda for the meeting, but rather administrative details such as outgoing board members recognition, internal board work and “mission moments work” the zoo has been doing like their conservation programs.

As far as the fate of the elephants, Bohmke said, “We announced that we are sending out the two elephants that we have, and we are not sending them to sanctuary. There will be an internal process to understand where we might send them and it may take weeks.”

Health issues are the main reason the zoo has decided not to send the animals to sanctuary.

“There are only two sanctuaries. They both have ongoing health issues as far as we are aware. …What information we have been able to gather from public sources is they both have serious health issues, and we don’t think it’s a good idea to send our animals into a situation where they could be exposed.”

Heggie disagrees.

“Sanctuary (for the elephants) is the best choice. Increasingly the research shows that, so this is the best thing for Seattle to do. …Sanctuaries are there with their cameras and night watchmen to make sure, like Watoto, they don’t collapse on a cold zoo floor above the Aurora Avenue freeway, and instead that they live their days in peace with good care takers who’s purpose is not breeding and spectatorship,” said Heggie.

So who owns the animals?

The 2002 ordinance states: “All Zoo animals currently owned by the City and all rights to animals acquired during the term of this Agreement (collectively, the "Zoo Animals"), shall be the sole property of WPZS, which shall also assume all obligations the City may have with respect to animals exhibited, housed, or otherwise kept or cared for at the Zoo during the term of this Agreement.”

“The Mayor and City Council must use their authority to secure the retirement of Bamboo and Chai to PAWS. Another zoo would be more of the same suffering,” said Alyne Fortgang, Co-founder of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants.

During the demonstrations attendees received a surprise visit from the Seattle Police Department at approximately 4:50 p.m. Demonstrators were in a circle in an area zoo staff had told them they could demonstrate in, when a procession of 15 officers rode through the parking lot on bicycles. Demonstrators applauded the officers.

The tail end of the SPD bicycle patrol that were called to the WPZ after a caller reported the demonstrators were climbing zoo fences. Photo by Shane Harms.

Lt. Greg Sackman said that SPD received a call that reported demonstrators climbing the zoo fence.

“I’d rather have too many people here, and then we just release them (officers), rather than vice versa. If you don’t have enough than you have problems.”

Sackman said that the bicycle officers were who was available at the time because the incident occurred during the evening shift change.

“It’s nothing out of the ordinary. Any time you get a call that there are demonstrations -- when there are people with signs and chanting that’s one thing, but the way it was called into us was people were climbing the fence; so you don’t know if there are hundreds or fifty, so we responded accordingly. It was nothing unusual.”

However, once SPD found about 20 remaining protesters, they were relieved of their post about 20 minutes later. Some officers did remain on the scene until 6 p.m. when the meeting ended.