Zoo Elephants: Space case

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Seattle's elephants receive great care, but that's not enough. They deserve more space.

A controversy over the future of one of the zoo's elephants, Bamboo, provides a window into the questions Seattle's political leadership needs to face at Woodland Park Zoo. Amid a host of zoo changes, city government has paid far too little attention to how well the planet's largest land animals may fit there for the long term.

In the 1980s (with help from a Seattle P-I campaign), the zoo built a new elephant home. The one-acre facility was considered a model. But Oakland now has six acres, other cities are expanding and a few zoos are giving up elephants.

Zoos are about conservation, education and experience. It fits for the public to be involved in choices about the most visible exhibits.

Oddly enough for a body that once debated banning circus performances by exotic animals, the Seattle City Council has been complacent about the elephants in its own zoo. And the city administration doesn't appear much more concerned. Until a P-I inquiry, a council committee chairman, David Della, hadn't been told a city-Muckleshoot tribal settlement envisions trading away zoo land near Enumclaw, which could provide space for elephants.

The land loss ought to spur a look for alternatives, such as the city buying closer-in land from or with King County. But the zoo's long-range plan also needs a fresh examination of its lack of additional space for elephants. And Bamboo deserves her own study of where she will be more settled than she has been in recent years, moving between Seattle and Tacoma. Activists suggest a well-regarded, 2,700-acre sanctuary in Tennessee.

Zoo leaders can only do the best they can with the resources they have. Without more public involvement, elephant questions inevitably become a matter of juggling for busy zoos' managers. As has happened in other cities, Seattle is due for an expanded public discussion that leads to more space for its elephants, here or in a sanctuary.

Soundoff (Read 15 comments)
Tell us what's on your mind.


Does Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo have enough room for its elephants?
18.3% No	57.0% No, and elephants don't belong in zoos
5.6% Yes	13.8% Yes, because zoo keepers offer a quality of care that is more important than space
1.5% I don't care	4.0% Not sure or other
Total Votes: 683