June 18, 2010– The International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos (IDAEZ) takes place this Saturday (June 19, 2010), with more than 30 events in five countries. You can help the elephants, even if you don’t live near a zoo, in two ways:

1. Send a message to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that they must put animal welfare over zoos’ interests. Sign the letter here.
2. Participate in the Virtual Demonstrations on Facebook and Twitter. Details here.

As I wrote last week, the plight of elephants in zoos around the world is tied to the plight of elephants in the wild in two ways. First, if wild elephants are threatened by poachers, environmental devastation, and human encroachment, then many zoos feel that the only hope for conservation is to remove elephants from their natural habitat and imprison them in small enclosures.

Secondly, elephants in zoos die (sometimes decades) earlier than if left in the wild. Part of this is due to infections and diseases they contract in their small enclosures; the other reason is elephants are too intelligent and emotional to be caged or fenced for life, which can lead to depression or violent behavior. Nevertheless, to keep the zoo populations high for “conservation” and “education” reasons, they need to have a steady supply of elephants from the wild, thus fueling the poachers or governments to capture the endangered wild elephants they are trying to conserve.

It’s a depressing cycle, but we can make a difference by:

• Educating our friends and families not to attend zoos or circuses that involve elephants
• Demanding that our local zoos ban importing any wild elephants to their zoos
• Demanding that elephants in zoos and circuses be allowed to “retire” to sanctuaries, like The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee or PAWS, the Performing Animal Welfare Society, in California, instead of being passed around and mistreated.

In Defense of Animals (IDA) needs our help to make this year’s Day of Action an even greater success. For more information please visit their web site.

The Facebook event can be found at http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=102256893153605&ref=mf

We’ll see you (virtually) tomorrow!

-Windy Borman

Director/Producer, “The Eyes of Thailand“

On March 27, 2010, I attended the Performing Animals Welfare Society (PAWS) Summit for Elephants. It was wonderful to be in a room full of elephant advocates and brainstorm about how to protect Asian and African elephants in captivity and the wild.  Those in attendance included:

• Sharon Niel, Conservationist and Author
• Don Tayloe, Director of The Last Elephants in Thailand documentary
• Patricia McEachern, Ph.D., Director of Drury University Forum on Animal Rights
• Julie Woodyer, Director of Zoocheck Canada
• Tim Phillips and Jan Creamer, Animal Defenders International
• Chris Draper, Born Free
• Catherine Doyle, Director of In Defense of Animals (IDA) Elephant Campaign
• and, of course, Pat Derby and Ed Stewart, PAWS founders.

I drove from San Francisco to PAWS in San Andreas particularly to hear Don Tayloe speak about Thai Elephants, the subject of The Eyes of Thailand documentary.  Mr. Tayloe attempted to summarize the problems facing Thailand’s Elephants–a huge, complex issue–in an hour-long presentation and he managed to cover a lot of ground.  First, he spoke out against “elephant painting“, which caused a bit of a ruckus among some zoo representatives who allow their elephants to paint abstractly but claim they have not taught or trained them to create the paintings made popular by the internet. Next, he explained the loophole in Thailand’s Draft Animal Act of 1939 that classifies domesticated/captive Asian Elephants as “livestock” not “endangered species”, even if they were captured from the wild, so international rulings by CITES, et al do not apply to Thailand’s captive elephants.  Finally, he discussed the exportation of Thai elephants to zoos or other captive environments in China, Japan and Australia, which Soraida Salwala, founder of the Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) Elephant Hospital and featured in The Eyes of Thailand, protests.  While there is no proof that the U.S. has not imported any elephants from Thailand, Tayloe quoted a well-known belief among zoo directors that “If you want to increase your zoo attendance, get yourself a baby elephant”, a sad, but true fact for everyone at the Elephant Summit.

Don Tayloe with Motala (before she received her prosthesis) at FAE's Elephant Hospital

The afternoon wrapped with an open forum about how to move forward led by Patricia McEachern, Ph.D., Director of Drury University Forum on Animal Rights. This conversation was very exciting not only because Dr. McEachern is creating the country’s first Animal Rights minor at a U.S. University, but also because of her vision for redefining the language we use to discuss animals by incorporating experts in philosophy, criminology, psychology, biology, religion and literature in the first Animal Ethics class. What excited me the most about what Dr. McEachern is doing is that she’s educating the next generation of global citizens about issues that will only become more important as conflict for resources grows.  I also think video and social media need to be added to the mix, so I spoke with her after and suggested she add a survey of animals in film and/or an advocacy filmmaking class to her curriculum, so we’ll see what happens there…

My biggest take-away from the summit is that only by finding common ground and a common message will we as elephant advocates be able to make any headway.  If we continue the in-fighting about “good zoo” vs. “bad zoo”,  “conservation” vs. “captivity”, elephants in the U.S. vs. Africa vs. Asian, we’ll continue to be written off as “crazy animal rights people”.  Instead, if the message is “We all love elephants, but what is it that we think is important for their well being?” then we have a starting point for a conversation with people on the other side.

For more information about The Eyes of Thailand, please visit our web site and follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

You can make a tax-deductible donation to The Eyes of Thailand to help us edit and distribute the film by clicking “Donate Now” on our web site.  It will take you to the secure online donation page for our fiscal sponsor, the San Francisco Film Society. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Windy Borman

Director & Producer, The Eyes of Thailand

Below is the press release from Catherine Doyle, the elephant Campaign Director at In Defense of Animals:

Feds Slap Los Angeles Zoo with Fine in Death of Elephant
http://www.savezooelephants.com/news_releases_10.html

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 20, 2009

USDA cites failure to provide veterinary care

Los Angeles, Calif.–The U.S. Department of Agriculture has hit the Los Angeles Zoo with a stipulated penalty of $3,281 for failure to provide veterinary care in the 2006 death of the elephant Gita, according to information just provided to In Defense of Animals (IDA) by the USDA.

“It’s outrageous that the USDA took so long to come to this pathetic conclusion, especially when the L.A. Zoo’s negligence caused Gita to suffer a slow and agonizing death,” said Catherine Doyle, IDA campaign director. “The paltry fine is nothing more than a slap on the wrist for the L.A. Zoo. It’s a sad reflection on how little value is placed on the life of an endangered species like the Asian elephant.”

Gita’s death on June 10, 2006, made headlines after IDA exposed the zoo’s

photo from LA Unleashed

failure to provide veterinary care to her after she collapsed and was unable to rise. Despite being observed down on the ground overnight, zoo personnel took no action to help the elephant, who died soon after keepers discovered the ailing elephant in the morning. It was estimated that Gita lay suffering for as long as 17 hours.

For decades Gita suffered from painful chronic foot disease and arthritis caused by inadequate conditions for elephants at L.A. Zoo. Her necropsy report noted that her severe arthritis or an extremely infected abscess on her back (caused by Gita leaning against her pen to take pressure off her painful front feet and joints) may have triggered a blood clotting disorder that caused her collapse and subsequent heart failure.

Last month, celebrities and animal protection leaders blasted the USDA for its failure to effectively protect captive-held elephants. In separate letters, Bob Barker and Lilly Tomlin, joined by leading animal protection organizations, criticized the USDA’s lack of timely action on a number of egregious cases involving elephants in zoos and circuses, including Gita’s. Read the letter here

“There simply is no excuse for the USDA’s foot dragging, especially in cases like Gita’s, where the facts are undeniably clear,” said Doyle. “Elephants are suffering and dying prematurely in zoos and circuses. It’s time for the USDA to start seriously enforcing the law and protecting these elephants now, rather than waiting until it’s too late.”

Gita is the fourteenth elephant to die at the Los Angeles Zoo. The zoo currently holds one solitary elephant, Billy.

For more information, please visit www.HelpElephants.com

Please read the news articles by the Associated Press and LA Times based on the above press release.

The Animal Rights 2009 National Conference is in LA from July 16-20.  So far, I’ve met some amazing animal activists and supporters and am pleased with the content I’ve seen and heard about elephants.  Two of the projects I’d like to highlight are:

• War on Animals, a documentary by Courtney Scott and Beyond Pictures, which “provides an overview of animal rights throughout history and illustrates the many ways activists are working to alleviate the animals’ suffering, including the refuges and sanctuaries that offer a new lease on life to old or disabled farm, lab, zoo and circus animals.” http://www.beyond-productions.com/

Image from "War on Animals"

• Elephants on the Edge, a short documentary about the illegal elephant trade in Southeast Asian by Tim Gorski, Director and Producer for Rattle the Cage Productions http://www.animalconsultants.org/consultants/gorski_tim.htm

Producer & Director, "Elephants on the Edge"

Tomorrow, I’m looking forward to brunch at Real Food Daily and meeting with Catherine Doyle from In Defense of Animals about her work with elephants involved in Amusement Campaigns (i.e. zoos and circuses).  To learn more about IDA’s Help Elephants campaigns, click here.

Please stay tuned for more updates on the conference!

Best,

Windy Borman

Producer, Writer and Director, The Eyes of Thailand

P.S. If you’re looking for a conference in Asia, consider Asia for Animals Conference 2010 in Singapore.  Who knows, maybe The Eyes of Thailand will be there, too!