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Tucson elephants Connie & Shaba stay together

by on Jan. 17, 2012, under Animal News, Pet Health & Safety

from the City of Tucson press release

City of Tucson Parks and Recreation officials and staff from the Reid Park Zoo have been re-evaluating a decision to separate Connie and Shaba from one another. Today, after conferring with experts from San Diego Zoo Global, Reid Park Zoo staff, Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) and the African Elephant Taxon Advisory Group (TAG), both Connie and Shaba will be relocated to Elephant Odyssey in San Diego.

The decision to move Shaba to San Diego along with Connie allows Reid Park Zoo to continue to meet the long-established objectives of its elephant program:

• Provide both Connie and Shaba with additional space, superior whole-life care, and expertly trained staff at AZA institutions.

• Introduce both Connie and Shaba to additional herd members, as two-animal “herds” do not provide for long term social needs for elephants.

• Continue to participate actively in the African Elephant Species Survival Plan and breeding program.

• Partner with fellow elephant experts for the future of elephants at AZA zoos.

• Provide an accredited Zoo in Tucson where guests have the opportunity to learn from elephants and are encouraged to form personal and meaningful connections with wildlife.

Following a conference call with San Diego Zoo officials, City of Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said “I am glad we found a solution that will keep Connie and Shaba together and provide them both with excellent care. This is a really good result for Connie, Shaba and the Tucsonans of all ages who love them.”

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Maybe being recently listed #2 on the top worst zoos had some positive effect on Reid Park zoo and City personnel.

Hopefully this is good news for Connie & Shaba!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 17th, 2012 at 10:39 pm and is filed under Animal News, Pet Health & Safety. Tags for this post: , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • leftfield

    Best news I’ve heard in a while.

  • http://birdclub.com Richie Chiger

    This is wonderful.  I am so happy that the zoo administration, from both zoos, made the kind, ethical and fair decision to keep that “elephant family” together.  When I spoke to the zoo director of Reid Park, she told me that all of the animal decisions that are made are re-evaluated all the time.  I am so happy they re-evaluated this one and did what was really best for these elephants.  Nobody has the right to hurt them emotionally or physically……. This is a kindness from the zoo.

  • http://drudgereport terese dudas

    I think the powers that be are pulling one over on Tucson elephant groupies; the AKA standards will not be relaxed – mixed species will not be exhibited/managed together in either venue, Tucson or San Diego.  Once these beasties are out of Tucson’s sight, they will be handled in the approved AKA  manner, separately.

    • Karyn Zoldan

      You could be right or wrong.
      What makes you think that the elephants will be separated in San Diego? Please elaborate.
      Thanks

      • http://birdclub.com Richie Chiger

        The exhibit to which they will be sent, Elephant Odyssey, in the San Diego Zoo, is the only elephant exhibit in the zoo.  It also houses several Asians that live together with one African female.    I believe the AZA’s mandate is that no new elephant exhibit have both species together, this exhibit already exits.  I don’t think that after all this publicity and controversy that the zoo “powers” would lie to people.   Hopefully all will go well and these two elephants will live out their lives together.

        • http://www.facebook.com/saveallelephants Elephant Lover

          If you believe the AZA and the apartheid foists on its zoos, don’t lie – I have a bridge to sell you.

      • http://www.facebook.com/saveallelephants Elephant Lover

        Please see my long response. The AZA will do what it wants – lame excuse to go with it.
         

  • http://drudgereport terese dudas

    I’ll believe it when I see the AKA statement of fact in writing; not before.  Too many American elephant zoo exhibits have been decimated since the AKA pronouncement regarding captive elephant management practices.

  • Elizabeth

    Maybe, maybe not.  The ‘experts’ in San Diego,  in their infinite wisdom, may determine that the two elephants don’t belong together after all, because they are of different species.  Sort of like, if you’re black you shouldn’t stay married to this guy you’ve been married to for years ’cause he’s white.  No matter about the animals’ emotional well-being.  Make the decision based on some wackadoo criterion that some agency came up with in order to earn their salaries.  Tucson, if you care about these beautiful beasts, please don’t stop  asking questions just because they’ve gone off to San Diego.

  • http://www.facebook.com/saveallelephants Elephant Lover

    The AZA is a animal broker, in common language a slave trader, read on to see that this applies. The animals are nothing but money makers to them. This is the reason for having the Africans come here – to breed not for conservation in the wild, but to breed captive (zoo) elephants, as slaves were. And woe if a baby is a male, they get sold to the circus and moved from family in very young childhood, or go to another zoo (the last lie was that Bhodi would go into musth at age 5! so he was just moved from Columbus to Denver, all by his lonesome). This has happened over and over again.

    Once one starts researching the AZA one discovers many heartless decisions, and many unnecessary deaths, not to mention all the emotional suffering of the elephants. The ONLY reason Connie & Shaba are APPEARING to stay together is because of public outcry and because Mr. Barker got involved with public support the AZA knew could get the elephants true retirement.

    There should be a great deal of skepticism by the mayor, by the paper, by all citizens as to what will really happen to them. The AZA can move them, separate them, any time they want. By law, elephants are no more property than a chair, as slaves once were.The AZA hates sanctuaries because they do such a better job with elephants, mainly because they have the space and better experts 24/7 (hours a zoo does not keep, that is why Umayo in San Diego was found critically wounded in the morning too late and died, she had no way to get away from her attacker). So the AZA and their lackeys, the zoo workers, give trash talk about sanctuaries and Bob Barker. Barker is not anti-zoo, he is anti-no space, he is anti-hard surface, he is anti-trade elephants off when a zoo feels like it.

    There are more animals in a zoo than elephants, it is elephants in particular that don’t live well in zoos, they live to die there. What will happen is that, like Tina & Jewel (an Asian pair), Connie & Shaba will stay in a garage with a small patio for months. They will have less room than they do now. The zoo will try to get them to meet the other elephants, but it is dicey if they will be accepted (Tina & Jewel were not accepted so they got “loaned” to LA Zoo – the slave trading I am talking about). Zoos smokescreen how big their exhibits are. The animals get the least of it. The main part is for visitor viewing.

    The bleak and barren Elephant Odyssey is now too small for all the elephants they have. Why take more? Because the AZA flat out doesn’t want them to go to sanctuaries, their stiff competition. Like anyone who works all their life, in this case as indentured servants to call it a nice name, the workers deserve retirement, and that would have been to a sanctuary where it would have been guaranteed they would not be separated. Perhaps the most blatant is that the AZA is trying to pair off Shaba with Tembo. If these were humans, the racism would not be tolerated. Now there is no guarantee old friends will stay together, the slave masters can do what they want with them and foist their own brand of racism/apartheid on the poor elephants.

    Zoos rarely make their own decisions; those decisions are orchestrated by the AZA. Connie & Shaba are another of many examples of manipulating the public. And don’t think the new Africans won’t be upset either coming here, but we can be sure it will be glossed over by cheerleading Ms. Vivian. The public rarely knows what really goes on behind the scenes in zoos, and circuses I will add.

    • http://drudgereport terese dudas

      Do you have proof for your allegations?

  • http://www.freetheelephants.com Cindy Wines

    Dear Elephant Lover:
    You are very knowledgeable. I have been to PAWS, donate to them and love how Pat Derby, Ed Stuart and Bob Barker are SO good to the elephants that arrive there. They are treated with royalty and have lots of room, ponds to swim in and trees to much. I hope Bob Barker keeps trying to get them to PAWS. If Tucson citizens know that they may have been tricked by the AZA, it will be too late because they have both been moved on to San Diego. Let’s hope these two old friends can stay together. I hope the new elephants coming in will be happy. It is sad that Connie and Shaba, after years of their cramped, crappy 1/3 acre cannot enjoy the new playground. I lived in Tucson for 5 years and after visiting the  Zoo and learning about Reid Park Zoo being one of the 10 worst zoos based on In Defense of Animals, it made me look at their “home” in new eyes. We will see what happens. I will be visiting in March to see what has happened.

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