Alaskans rally 'round elephant
Minneapolis Star Tribune Editorial: January 12, 2005
There are African elephants and there are Asian elephants, but there is only one Alaskan elephant. To animal-rights groups, the national zoo-accreditation group -- and, probably, most anyone who thinks a modern zoo should not condone suffering -- that's one too many.
Still, the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage is trying to hold onto Maggie, a full-grown female from Zimbabwe who has been on her own there since a companion, an Asian female, died of a foot infection in 1997. By way of rejoinder to its critics, the zoo management is enlarging the concrete barn in which Maggie must spend the long sub-Arctic winter, and also plans a first-of-its-kind, $100,000 exercise treadmill. No kidding.
Now, the idea of watching a 4-1/2 ton elephant work out on a treadmill might strike you as funny. One can imagine flanking the machine with murals of the African savannah, or perhaps placing a projection TV at the far end, displaying images of an attentive male.
But in reality, where Maggie has the misfortune to live, this approach to caring for animals -- especially one with an elephant's social needs -- is sickening. The treadmill is not about easing her arthritis, as the zookeepers say, or helping her lose some of the fat she has put on. It's about holding onto a 20-year star attraction, no matter what.
The Alaskans are also bucking a praiseworthy trend in which zoos that can't properly house their elephants are setting them free in special sanctuaries, where they can roam widely in something like their intended climate. The Detroit Zoo has permanently closed its exhibit; San Francisco's is moving its two elephants to sanctuary and, by city ordinance, can't get any new ones unless it provides them with a 15-acre habitat, probably impossible.
Room to roam outdoors, on natural surfaces and in a suitable climate, is an important requirement of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the industry's accreditation body (it helps to prevent foot infections, a chronic problem of elephants confined on concrete). But so is social grouping: AZA urges that female elephants be kept in groups of three or larger; solitary confinement is "inappropriate."
The AZA should not be mistaken for a radical animal-rights outfit. Rather, it is a professionally staffed, industry-supported organization which helps maintain the commercial viability of zoos by ensuring that their programs meet sensible standards of animal health and well-being. Indeed, of the 10 U.S. zoos that activists have spotlighted for their shabby treatment of elephants, all but Alaska's are AZA-accredited (as are this state's Minnesota, Como Park and Lake Superior zoos, none of which has an elephant exhibit).
So far, the Anchorage operation has declined to seek accreditation -- which may not prove, but certainly permits, an unfavorable conclusion about its regard for professional standards. But it may have more trouble keeping a deaf ear turned to the many Alaskans who, despite their reflexive resentment of interference from the world they call Outside, are organizing a boycott to force Maggie's parole.
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