African Lion Safari named worst zoo for elephants in North America
A California-based animal rights group has named the African Lion Safari the worst zoo for elephants in North America.
In Defense of Animals (IDA) accuses the Hamilton wildlife park of imposing cruel conditions on its dozen-plus Asian elephants that are often exposed to harsh winter conditions.
Spokesperson Will Anderson said the IDA also pegged African Lion Safari as its worst zoo because they train elephants with bullhooks, make them perform tricks and allow customers to ride them.
Another factor cited was their rate of selling elephants.
They're moving them around like chess pieces," Anderson, an elephant campaign co-ordinator for IDA, said in an interview.
It's the first year the African Lion Safari has topped the IDA's annual list. No other Canadian zoo or wildlife facility featured in this year's top-10 ranking released Tuesday.
African Lion Safari did not respond to requests for comment.
The massive, 705-acre tourist attraction near Rockton - which hosts over 1,000 exotic birds and wild animals - claims on its website to have the largest Asian elephant herd on the continent.
There are presently 16 elephants at the park, according to its site. At least 21 calves have been born there since 1970. The zoo claims its self-operated breeding program has had more second-generation births than any other facility in Canada or the U.S.
Many of those, Anderson claimed, have been sold and shipped to other wildlife parks. He said the African Lion Safari epitomizes the elephant exploitation business.
The IDA said in a press release the African Lion Safari plans to sell two female Asian elephants - 15-year-old Emily and eight-year-old Nellie - to the Fort Worth Zoo for $2 million.
In 2019, the Texas-based zoo filed a permit application for the purchase and transport of the animals to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The application said African Lion Safari would get $200,000 extra should Emily give birth to a calf that lives longer than 60 days.
But a spokesperson for the Fort Worth Zoo - which was ranked second in the IDA's list - told The Spectator in a statement the permit was withdrawn last year following an internal decision" from park management.
Julie Woodyer, campaign director for the animal welfare organization Zoocheck, said she wasn't surprised to learn of African Lion Safari's ranking because its park isn't conducive to a wild animal's natural habitat.
Woodyer said elephants are social animals who biologically depend on warm weather and vast room for exercise. In winters, when elephants are kept in closed areas with hard floors and limited space, they're at risk to physical harms like joint pain, arthritis, obesity, stress and emotional trauma.
What you've got is animals living in such an unnatural climate that their biology can no longer cope with it," she said.
The poor living environment an elephant is subjected to can also lead to erratic behaviour, Woodyer added.
In 2019, an African Lion Safari trainer was hospitalized and seriously injured after he was attacked by an elephant. In 1989, 21-year-old Omer Norton was killed at the park after he turned his back to an elephant who then swung its head and crushed him.
Woodyer took issue with African Lion Safari for what she called prolific breeding." The park claims on its website its goal is to breed Asian elephants to conserve an endangered species, but there is no mention of returning the animals to their natural habitats.
They argue it's for conservation reasons, but there's no plan to ever return them to the wild, nor are they biological candidates to return because they've been altered so significantly during captivity," she said.
It's simply to replenish zoo populations."
Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com