PUBLIC SUBMISSION | As of: March 16, 2009 Comments Due: December 11, 2006 |
Docket: APHIS-2006-0044
Animal Welfare Act; Standards of Care for Elephants
Comment On: APHIS-2006-0044-0001
Animal Welfare; Elephants
Document: APHIS-2006-0044-1953
Comment from Carl Cording
Ravena, NY,
Zoos and circuses do not provide elephants with the conditions they require for
their health and well-being.
The Animal Welfare Act requires that zoos and circuses provide elephants with
adequate space. Neither zoos nor circuses currently meet this requirement.
In too many zoos and circuses, elephants suffer not only from lack of space, but
from unnatural conditions and social deprivation that eventually cause a range of
preventable ailments ? including painful arthritis, foot disease, reproductive and
digestive disorders, and neurotic behaviors such as swaying and head bobbing.
An estimated half of all captive elephants suffer from arthritis and foot disease,
and these ailments are the leading cause of euthanasia in captive elephants.
Circus elephants are often subjected to prolonged chaining, spending up to 21
hours a day standing in chains and more than 11 months of the year traveling in
train boxcars, where they are again chained, and forced to endure extreme
temperatures and to stand for hours in their own waste. Many zoo elephants are
also subjected to prolonged chaining, and to confinement in barn stalls for
extended periods of time.
Circuses and many zoos control their elephants through force, domination, and
aggressive use of the bullhook and other tools of intimidation such as whips,
clubs, and electric shock devices. These instruments are unnecessary and must
be outlawed.
Exhibitors of elephants must be required to provide large, naturalistic
environments similar to those at The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the
Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in California. These two
refuges provide hundreds to thousands of acres over which elephants can roam,
socialize and maintain their health.