The ban on elephants in UK zoos is not a sure thing, but it could be if we act now
News recently broke of draft legislation that would ban the keeping of elephants in UK zoos. Unfortunately, following clarification from environment minister Zac Goldsmith, Defra has no such plans, yet ‘inside sources’ have hinted at growing concern within the government about zoos with a report on elephant welfare imminent.
Last month, the Daily Mail appeared to break a story about an upcoming ban on keeping elephants in zoos in the UK, bringing together several elements including comments from an ‘inside source’ about a 10-year report into elephant welfare expected later this year, and the fact that a new Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill is now through to its second reading in the House of Commons.
Sadly, the story is to a degree only hearsay. Environment minister Zac Goldsmith, thought to be one of the driving forces behind zoo reforms concerning elephants and a key figure at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, told the British and Irish Association of Zoos and Aquariums (BIAZA) that “Defra has no plans to ban the keeping of elephants in UK zoos" and that while a report on elephant welfare was expected, he did not know “what the recommendations are likely to be”.
The press being what it is, the story was picked up and repeated by the Metro, Sun and at least one vegan media outlet all with headlines that make no mention of the uncertainty of the source, but with text that was subsequently updated to include Goldsmith’s clarification. The apparent senior insider was speculating on the outcome of the 10-year report by the UK Elephant Welfare Group, to be examined by the UK’s Zoos Expert Committee following its submission to Defra later this year.
"Once the current load of elephants die out we will say you can't replace them. It's impossible to keep them in conditions where they are happy, the space is too small,” the source told the Daily Mail. "It's very likely we are going to say you can't make elephants happy in zoos, we should instead be focusing on elephant conservation in areas that have elephants.
It is very possible that the senior source could be Goldsmith himself, or it could equally be any one of several key figures at Defra. We just don’t know. What we do know is that the government is sufficiently concerned about elephant welfare to have convened a committee of academics, conservationists and zoo inspectors tasked with, among other things, reviewing and issuing recommendations based on the upcoming decade-long report into how well zoos are able to provide for their needs. We know that zoos are not fit for purpose, and the rumour that started this whole story off is that the report will say the same.
We also know that a new ‘action plan for animal welfare’ is on the way, based on recent announcements from the Conservative government. One of the bills that forms part of the plan is indeed an Animal Welfare (Kept Animals) Bill, sponsored by George Eustice and Defra and now in its second reading, that includes provisions for reviewing standards at UK zoos, as well as paving the way for a ban on live exports, puppy smuggling and the keeping of primates as companion animals.
While the bill does not mention elephants specifically, Schedule Five (Zoos) will enact a number of important amendments to the Zoo Licensing Act 1981 including more stringent regulation and inspections by veterinary surgeons and specialists, ensuring that zoos are actually contributing to conservation efforts and an increase in penalties for certain offences.
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The insider’s comments also resonate strongly with testimony from animal welfare groups that elephants suffer terribly in captivity, both physically and mentally.
Will Travers OBE, president of the charity Born Free - which has been campaigning against the keeping of elephants in zoos for decades - was reported by Totally Vegan Buzz as saying: “The complex needs of this exceptionally intelligent, sensitive and social species can never be met in a zoo – captive elephants can suffer physically and psychologically. Ending their exploitation is why our work began nearly 40 years ago, so this news is deeply poignant and significant for our charity.”
According to the RSPCA’s Live hard, die young - how elephants suffer in zoos report, elephants in captivity are plagued by debilitating conditions including arthritis due to lack of exercise and live just 15 or 16 years on average for Asian and African elephants respectively, compared to 50 years in the wild. “Even elephants working in Burmese timber camps have a mean life expectancy of 30 years,” said the RSPCA report.
Other welfare problems identified by the RSPCA include the higher prevalence of stillbirth, infanticide and calf rejection in zoos, accounting for 74 per cent of infant elephant deaths in zoos, and that 60 per cent of surviving adult elephants eventually succumb to illnesses including circulatory problems, foot problems, herpes and tuberculosis.
Malnutrition, intestinal problems and slow breeding rates are all thought to be higher in zoos. The exact causes are all complex, but what is clear from the RSPCA’s report alone is that elephants simply cannot be cared for adequately in zoos, or at least not in such a way as to enable them to thrive as they would in the wild.
Many zoos argue that keeping elephants in captivity contributes to wider conservation efforts, despite the fact that bred animals can rarely be returned to the wild, particularly if no efforts are made to ensure that the issues that affected their habitats in the first place are remedied.
BIAZA chief executive Jo Judge told the Metro that keeping elephants in zoos allowed for the testing of conservation equipment such as thermal imaging and camera traps, the development of vaccines and the funnelling of money from ticket sales into conservation funds.
However, as justifications for the active capture and imprisonment of wild elephants, these reasons are at best tenuous and optimistic. Zoo elephants do not breed well due to infertility and having lower life expectancies that shorten their breeding period significantly. All this means that to replace elephants, zoos must import ones caught in the wild, but neither the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) nor the African Elephant Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) believes captive breeding does anything for elephant conservation.
The IUCN recommends instead the establishment of protected habitats, stronger enforcement of anti-poaching legislation and other strategies to reduce conflict with humans. None of these approaches includes captive breeding or the importation over long distances of wild-caught elephants.
Even if there are no concrete plans as yet to ban the keeping of elephants, it is clear that politically - while the Conservatives are on a mission in regards to animal welfare, are sensitive to the will of voters, and on the eve of a report on zoos - now is the time for people to speak out against keeping of all animals in captivity.
Andrew Gough is Media and Investigations Manager for Surge.
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