Another side of the story at the Philadelphia Zoo
Animals are kept in cramped, outdated spaces.
Marianne Bessey
heads the Philadelphia chapter
of the League of Humane Voters
As the Philadelphia Zoo celebrated its 150-year anniversary recently, dozens of local citizens gathered outside to call attention to long-standing animal-welfare problems and wasteful spending at the zoo. For the most part, the media provided only partial coverage of the day's events, ignoring the other side of the zoo story.
Criticizing a childhood tradition such as the zoo is about as popular as a root canal, but it's just as necessary. Questions and calls for change are the only way we move forward.
Just a few months ago, the zoo spent $800,000 to import a spanking-new "Rainforest" carousel from the Netherlands, an executive told Fairmount Park commissioners. At the same time, many of the zoo's animal inhabitants remain confined to crumbling, Depression-era enclosures.
Too many of the zoo's animals are forced to sleep and eat in the same small spaces where they urinate and defecate. Based on my observations, examples of animals kept in inadequate enclosures include:
A lone rhino confined to a dinky, barren exhibit lacking shade.
Two hippos that spend most of November through March crammed in a tiny indoor stall due to chilly outdoor temperatures.
An okapi (an African herd animal) stuck alone in a yard more suitable for a poodle.
Lemurs, which are arboreal in nature (spending most of their time in trees and bushes), housed in small stalls where the only foliage is painted on the cement walls.
The lone Asian bear is often seen neurotically bobbing and weaving, an indication that zoo conditions are negatively impacting his well-being.
Even in the "state-of-the-art" Big Cat Falls exhibit, the big cats take turns in the outdoor display, so they, too, spend hours confined to indoor cages every day.
What do such artificial settings and unnatural animal behaviors really teach visitors, except that animals are display objects?
Finally, there are the elephants. Based on the average costs of keeping the animals, the zoo has probably spent close to a million dollars over the past few years keeping its elephants in conditions that zoo officials themselves have admitted are inadequate, awaiting the construction of a breeding facility outside Pittsburgh. It's unconscionable that the zoo refused to send the elephants to a wonderful sanctuary that offered to take them in at no charge years ago.
Arguably even worse is the zoo's life-threatening plan to attempt to breed the 27-year-old elephants Kallie and Bette. Zoo industry data underscore the dangers associated with the first-time breeding of elephants over the age of 25.
It's time for the zoo to be held accountable. The zoo leases its city property for a dollar a year. In addition, millions of our city tax dollars are given to the zoo every year in the form of water, garbage, and capital-improvement subsidies. The zoo must stop wasting money on new animals, added visitor amenities, and high executive salaries while the animals already there are left to languish in cramped, outdated enclosures.
Conservation expenditures, which currently account for less than 1 percent of the zoo's annual budget, also need to increase substantially. And they should support true conservation of endangered species - that is, saving animals' native habitat, not breeding them in captivity.
It's time for animal welfare to become the top priority at the zoo. And city officials must stop blindly funding the zoo with tax dollars until the zoo does what is best for the elephants and other animals. Since zoo management isn't willing to make animal welfare a priority, we need to demand that city officials take a more active role.