The memory of an elephant by Donna Robb

January 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

At least one of the estimated 600
elephant handlers in the U.S. has been killed
in each of the past 15 years by an elephant’s
foot, trunk, or tusk, or as part of an elephant
sandwich, making elephant training riskier,
in fatalities per thousand, than any other
occupation.
So who would want such a job? I
would. I was an elephant keeper for four
years at the Cleveland Metropark Zoo. I
worked with two female African elephants,
Simba and Tiani, who touched my life more
than anything else but the births of my three
daughters. I went through two of my pregnancies
while working as an elephant keeper,
and never received more than a squashed
wedding band and a few stitches in my forearm
to show for it. What would the statisticians
have done with a stomped 9-monthspregnant
keeper?

News from zoos

January 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

Improvements
Four months after giving the Los
Angeles Zoo one year to make improvements
necessary to keep accreditation,
American Zoo and Aquarium Association
representive Stephen McCusker credits interim
zoo administrator Manuel Mollinedo, 49,
with accomplishing many of the goals. “He’s
worked miracles,” adds Los Angeles city
council member Rita Walters, a member of
the Ad Hoc Committee on Zoo Improvement,
indicating that Mollinedo could soon be
given the top zoo job on a permanent basis.
A longtime Parks and Recreation official,
Mollinedo took the interim post with no
background in either zoo management or veterinary
science. His hand was strengthened
by a recent report to the Ad Hoc Committee
by Los Angeles chief legislative analyst Ron
Deaton and chief administrative officer Keith
Comrie, who argued that the zoo should
become an independent branch of the city
government, with greater authority over the
Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, the
private fundraising organization that runs the
zoo concessions. Zoo attendance has fallen
since 1990, while the concessions lost
money in both 1993 and 1994.

Marine mammals in captivity

January 1, 1996 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

A year after ANIMAL PEOPLE reader Janice
Garnett, of Venice, Florida, asked us to look into the
plight of two dispirited Pacific whitesided dolphins at the
Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco, the dolphins were
flown to Sea World San Antonio in November to join the
biggest pod of their species in captivity, at the facility considered
the state-of-the-art for keeping whales and dolphins.
ANIMAL PEOPLE passed Garnett’s letter to San Francisco
SPCA ethical studies coordinator Pam Rockwell, who
learned that the dolphins, named Amphrite and Thetis, had
been in a tank only 25% of the legal minimum size since
1975 and 1978, respectively, sharing the space with four
harbor seals whom local stranding rescuers judged unsuitable
for return to the wild. The California Academy of the
Sciences, operators of the Steinhart, had special dispensation
from the National Marine Fisheries Service and USDA to
keep the dolphins, in part because they had remained healthy
for longer than any other whitesided dolphins ever captured.

Lolita & Willy

December 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:

MIAMI, Florida––Pressure on the embattled Miami
Seaquarium intensified on October 23 when Metro Dade building director
Carlos Bonzon gave management 45 days to come up with a plan to repair
Lolita the Killer Whale’s Stadium, the 25-year-old central attraction of the
facility. Plans for a $70 million expansion, including a new whale stadium,
are on hold due to a lawsuit filed by the nearby town of Key Biscayne.
“Lolita’s tank appears to be structurally sound,” the M i a m i
H e r a l d reported on November 25. However, “the grandstand has been
severely corroded by saltwater, and is held up by temporary beams.”
Bonzon’s order came a year after whale freedom advocate Ric
O’Barry introduced himself to the Dade County building inspection
department as “the former trainer of the Seaquarium’s original killer whale,
Hugo,” who died in 1980, and charged that the crumbling whale stadium
could be broken up by displacement as Lolita leaps.
The Seaquarium staff architect called O’Barry’s claim unfounded.

Aquariums

September 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

An autopsy on a five-year-old dolphin w h o

died of lead poisoning on July 23 at the Luna Park tank

in Tel Aviv found she had ingested about 100 air rifle

bullets. X-rays found that her companion, Fiadora, 12

had also ingested several dozen bullets, and could die

soon without surgery. A third dolphin, Max, died of

unknown causes earlier in the year. All three were

imported from Russia about two and a half years ago.

Ric O’Barry, who staged an eight-day hunger strike to

get such imports stopped in early 1993, told ANIMAL

PEOPLE on August 7 that, “We will have Fiadora con-

fiscated soon, I feel. I will return to Tel Aviv to transfer

her to a sea pen at Elat, on the Red Sea. Then, when

the Sugarloaf Key project is over (page one), I will

rehab and release Fiadora back into the Black Sea off

Turkey. She will be the first Russian Navy dolphin to be

set free,” at least officially; another dolphin believed to

have been trained by the Russian Navy spent the early

summer begging for fish in the harbor at Bakar, Croatia.

RELIGION & ANIMALS

September 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Self-styled Santerian priest Rigoberto

Zamora, 58, was charged July 18 with four counts

of felony cruelty for killing 11 birds, three goats, and

a lamb in his Miami Beach apartment on June 26,

1993. Zamora, whose priestly credentials are chal-

lenged by other Santerians, staged the slaughter to

celebrate a U.S. Supreme Court ruling two weeks ear-

lier that bans on animal sacrifice per se violate the

First Amendment right to freedom of religion. The

court left intact anti-cruelty statutes, which may

affect where and how sacrifices are made, without

prohibiting them outright.

Afflicted with an inflamed stomach,

Shin, a 10-year-old Himalayan snow leopard who

lives at the San Francisco Zoo, hadn’t eaten in two

weeks as of June 10, when she was visited by 11

Tibetan monks from Gyuto Tantric University in

Tenzin Gang, India. The monks performed a five-

minute puja for her––a healing chant. Reported Jorge

Aquino of Religion News Service, who photographed

the event, “As the monks began their blessing, Shin

came down from her 15-foot perch and sat down to

face the monks. She watched and listened, apparent-

ly transfixed.” Shortly after the chant ceased, she

resumed eating her regular rations.

Zoos

September 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1995:

Alleged embezzling rocked two leading animal exhibition insti-

tutions during the summer. The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association is

officially mum about the discovery that $72,000 of the $7.5 million it

received last year from concession sales is missing. The discrepancy was

discovered in early June, but has not been reported to police, as the associa-

tion apparently hopes to resolve the case internally. In a similar but unrelat-

ed case, the International Marine Animal Trainers Association recently

found $60,000 missing; did not press charges against the former IMATA

treasurer, who acknowledged responsibility; and has informed membership

that it has received partial restitution. IMATA pledged it would not reveal

the identity of the individual in question, whose identity is nonetheless

known to ANIMAL PEOPLE. She no longer works in the animal field.

As the Missouri River rose in the Dakotas in June, a patron

donated use of a private jet to Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago) and Milwaukee

County Zoo staffers, who collected 30 piping plover eggs then and 114

more later, along with 116 eggs from least terns. Both the plovers and the

terns are endangered, and the riverbank nesting sites of both were wiped

out. Ninety-one plovers and 67 terns hatched, the first of their species to be

successfully artificially incubated. Captive breeding may be the birds’ best

hope of survival, as they’ve lost about 80% of their habitat since 1950, and

are quite vulnerable to predation and bad weather in the remaining habitat.

White tigers, green polar bears, & maintaining a world-class zoo

July 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, July/August 1995:

SINGAPORE––When the tigers

are white and the polar bears are a blotchy

dark green, a zoo has problems.

Opened in June 1973, the

Singapore Zoo and adjacent Night Safari are

together reputedly the best zoo complex with-

in half a global orbit, together setting the

Asian zoo design and management standard.

More than 1.2 million visitors per

year view about 3,200 animals of 330 mostly

tropical species at the Singapore Zoo and

Night Safari.

The animals are chiefly housed in

semi-natural surroundings. The equatorial

Singapore climate is good for reptiles year-

round, including some of the largest tortoises,

most active monitors, and largest gharials and

salt water crocodiles on exhibit anywhere.

Zoos & sanctuaries

June 1, 1995 Dylan Forest Leave a comment

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, June 1995:

The sale of the city-owned

Bridgeport Zoo to the nonprofit Connecticut

Zoological Society, backed by $5.5 million in

state aid, has been delayed and perhaps halted

after three years of planning. The zoo occu-

pies park land donated by the James Walker

Beardsley family, who have the right to

reclaim the site if it is turned over to any entity

other than the city or the state. Beardsley’s

heirs say they would not exercise such a claim,

but public officials aren’t willing to take the

chance. The financially troubled city seeks to

sell the zoo, still undergoing extensive renova-

tion, because it costs about $1 million a year to

run, only $600,000 of which comes from

admissions, concession sales, and donations.

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