By Nancy Farnam

It has been five years since the young Asian elephant, Hansa, was found dead in the barn at Woodland Park Zoo. Her mother, Chai, stood over her body as if trying to protect her daughter even in death. It seems appropriate on this sad anniversary to choose a lasting memorial to Hansa. But to do so we must ask why she died and what her life and the lives of the surviving elephants have been like at the Zoo.
The Zoo claimed Hansa's death was "unexpected". Tests showed Hansa died from one of the dreaded elephant herpes viruses that have killed many Asian calves in zoos and circuses. Researchers have confirmed that this particular virus (EEHV3a) is endemic to African elephants and the Zoo's African elephant, Watoto, has tested positive for it. What is shocking is that industry guidelines have told zoos since the 1990's that "Asian and African elephants should not be placed together in the same enclosure. Herpes viruses endemic to one species can be fatal in the other." (AZA Guidelines, 3.2.13). Woodland Park Zoo, inexplicably, chose to simply ignore this warning and Hansa died before her seventh birthday.
The mindset that caused the Zoo to play Russian roulette with Hansa's life is the same mindset that reduces animals to the status of commodities whose sole purpose and value rest in how they can benefit the Zoo. It is this mindset that caused the Zoo to continue artificially inseminating Chai over 60 times even though another calf would likely meet the same fate as Hansa. Veterinarians urged the Zoo to stop its deadly breeding program telling them that "the risk of death for the offspring is too great", but the Zoo ignored these pleas.

This same mindset made it acceptable to beat the elephants, including Hansa, for years, with sharp weapons called bullhooks and to chain them for long periods. It is the mindset that caused the Zoo to keep the elephants in a one acre exhibit that ignores the very nature of an elephant; their need to migrate, forage, socialize and to be in close connection with the natural world. At Woodland Park Zoo, the elephants have been confined to small yards without any access to the vegetation that surrounds them and are locked in the barn for 17 hours a day, 7 months of the year, the equivalent of locking a person in a small closet.

The Zoo's Deputy Director, Bruce Bohmke, defended the lack of space by claiming that elephants don't move in the wild" once they get food and water and since the Zoo gives them both, they don't need any space. However, researchers have found that elephants in the wild actually migrate over far greater distances in times of plenty. One has to wonder how the Zoo can claim to be all about elephant conservation and respect for the species when they are forcing these elephants to live their whole lives in such completely unnatural and deprived living conditions.
Despite the Zoo's claims that the elephants are all "healthy and thriving", their own records show that they suffer from crippling arthritis, chronic foot infections and colic caused by severe confinement, lack of exercise, and being forced to stand on hard surfaces in their own waste. These ailments typically lead to premature death. They are unheard of in free-ranging elephants.

All of the Woodland Park Zoo elephants also display severe neurotic behaviors - rocking back and forth, headbobbing, pacing and various forms of aggression which are heartbreaking to watch year after year. The keepers tell zoo visitors that this is simply the elephants "anticipating" their next meal but respected animal behaviorists say it is really the outward sign of deep anxiety and distress caused by confinement and the lasting trauma from past brutal treatment. Free-ranging herds do not display such behavior but it is prevalent in zoo and circus elephants.
Clearly, these elephants have suffered enough. Hansa is dead and the survivors are rapidly deteriorating. It is time for us to get over our selfish desire for a 2 minute stare at an elephant. That brief and superficial encounter has come at far too high a cost to these animals. We now know the damage it does to them. Zoos can do many things well, but keeping Earth's largest land mammal is not one of them. If the Zoo has its way, these elephants will likely die prematurely in Seattle without ever having the chance to live as elephants. They deserve that chance and we in the community can make sure they get it.

Compassionate citizens can contact the Seattle City Council (council@seattle.gov) and ask that the Woodland Park Zoo elephants, Bamboo, Watoto, Chai and Sri (on loan to the St. Louis Zoo but still owned by WPZ) be retired to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (www.elephants.com). There, they would have over 2700 acres of sub-tropical habitat to explore and could spend the rest of their days swimming in a 25 acre lake, foraging in idyllic meadows and hiking on wooded trails.
In his important book, Dominion, Matthew Scully wrote "How we treat our fellow creatures is...one more way in which each one of us, every day, writes our own epitaph--bearing into the world a message of light and life, or just more darkness and death, adding to the world's joy or to its despair." It is time to end the surviving Woodland Park Zoo elephants' heartbreaking despair in zoo captivity so they can finally begin their lives -- as elephants. Giving them the gift of sanctuary is the best memorial to Hansa. Such an outcome would finally bring something good out of the tragedy of her short and sad life.