Set pachyderms free

A Bronx Zoo pachyderm can recognize itself in the mirror, we learned this week. Zoo defenders and animal rights activists square off on letting Dumbos go free

BY ELLIOT M. KATZ

News that elephants recognize themselves in a mirror and are thus self-aware was trumpeted worldwide this week. Yet every day elephants needlessly suffer in too-small zoo enclosures.
Elephants are intelligent and emotionally complex animals. They enjoy exceptional longevity. In the wild, their families are tightly knit; mothers and daughters stay together for life. They are active more than 16 hours a day, exploring, socializing and caring for young, moving long distances (5 to 10 miles or more) in a complex and varied environment.

This is a far cry from life in a zoo, where cramped spaces, barren yards and unnatural social groupings cause severe deprivation. A zoo elephant's life, in essence, is waking up each morning to decide in which corner of the yard to stand.

Captivity-induced health problems are epidemic. Painful arthritis and fatal foot infections are common, a result of small enclosures that restrict movement and hard surfaces like concrete. Obesity, infertility, high infant mortality and neurotic behaviors are also common. Some zoo elephants are maintained on a steady diet of painkillers that mask their symptoms until it is too late.

Images of suffering elephants are difficult to forget. Take the National Zoo's Toni, dead at age 39, leaning against her elephant companion to take pressure off her aching, arthritic joints. Or Clara at the St. Louis Zoo, constantly shifting her weight from one infected foot to the other to escape the pain.

It's wrong to inflict such misery. Putting elephants on display in zoos will not save them in their natural habitats. No captive-born elephant will be returned to the wild. And as for education, people have seen elephants in zoos for 200 years - yet elephants have been driven to the brink of extinction.

Urban zoos simply do not have the space or resources to give elephants the quality of life they deserve. Major institutions like the Bronx, Detroit, San Francisco and Philadelphia zoos have closed or are phasing out their elephant exhibits. But other zoos remain entrenched.

Elephants may have joined us in that exclusive group of species that exhibit mirror self-recognition, but the inhumane treatment of elephants in our nation's zoos is a poor reflection on our own intelligence and humanity.