Top 10 worst zoos for elephants
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E-mail idausa.org, October 18, 2014
Woodland Park Zoo, Washington
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A deadly elephant breeding program, intense confinement and a host of captivity-induced ailments put this zoo -- where the elephants are confined in an outdated barn for 17 hours a day, seven days a week, seven months a year due to the cold, wet Seattle weather -- in IDA's Hall of Shame. Chai, Bamboo and Watoto are held in roughly an acre of space divided into smaller yards (Watoto, an African elephant, and Bamboo, an Asian, don't get along and must be kept separate), where they suffer foot disease and arthritis, abnormal behaviors such as repetitive swaying and rocking, and breeding disorders including early infertility. A lethal elephant herpes virus that mainly strikes captive elephants killed six-year-old Hansa in 2007 and remains a serious threat to any elephant born at the zoo in the future, yet it continues to subject Chai to repeated invasive artificial insemination procedures.
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