From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 2004:

DETROIT, SAN FRANCISCO–American Zoo Association director
Sydney Butler has warned the Detroit Zoo and San Francisco Zoo that
the AZA “fundamentally disagrees” with their decisions to retire two
elderly elephants each to sanctuaries, and will “vigorously enforce
our professional ethics and accreditation standards” if the elephants
are moved contrary to the dictates of the AZA Species Survival Plan
committee.
Detroit Zoo director Ron Kagan on May 19, 2000 announced
that the elephants Winky, 51, and Wanda, 40-something, would be
sent to the Elephant Sanctuary at Hohenwald, Tennessee, founded and
directed by former circus performer Carol Buckley.
The elephants would go from their present one-acre enclosure
to a 2,700-acre facility where they could live among a matriarchal
herd almost as if wild.
The Elephant Sanctuary has nine elephants now: six Asians,
three Africans.
“Kagan’s intent drew widespread public praise, but alarmed
many in the zoo community who believe that zoos are fully capable of
providing good lives for elephants,” understated Detroit Free Press
writer Hugh McDiarmid Jr.
Transferring any elephants outside the AZA-accredited zoo
network could become an influential argument for transferring any
elephants whose situations are less than ideal–and elephants are
perhaps the leading gate attractions at any zoo, but are in ever
shorter supply.

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