Task Farce

Vehrs also discussed the minimum required outdoor space for an elephant exhibit – 5,000 square feet per animal. It was happily noted that Woodland Park Zoo’s outdoor space is approximately 43,000 square feet, which roughly breaks down to an individual space of 120×120 feet for each of the three elephants there. GFAS’ Jackie Bennett said that the issue of space is “complex” and that it’s not just its size but a measurement of many things, including “quality space” – a position that the IDA takes issue with (PDF) and which Nicole Meyer would bring up later in her testimony.

By contrast, WPZ’s indoor elephant barn is broken up into four sections, with the largest being 22×39 feet (858 square feet), and the smallest 22×15 feet (308 square feet). What wasn’t brought up at the meeting was the minimum daily temperature needed for the elephants to be allowed outside, voluntarily or otherwise, for a substantial duration of time, and exactly how much time on average Watoto, Bamboo, and Chai have to spend indoors when the temperature is too cold to go out. The AZA doesn’t have a set standard for a minimum prolonged outdoor temperature. Instead, its Standards for Elephant Management and Care (PDF) – part of the standards Vehrs helped write – uses a lot of “may need to” language. The minimum indoor temperature, however, is explicitly required to be 55°F “at all times of the year,” with at least one room capable of maintaining 70°F for “sick or debilitated” elephants.

In Defense of Animals published a report (PDF) on elephants in cold climates and found that “thirty-one out of seventy-five zoos holding elephants are situated in cold-climate cities, with three out of four of those zoos averaging mean temperatures below freezing for two to five consecutive months each year. These zoos hold approximately forty percent of all elephants in AZA-accredited zoos.” It’s the reason the Detroit Zoo decided in 2004 to close its elephant exhibit and send its two elephants to sanctuary at PAWS. Said zoo Executive Director Ron Kagan at the time, “Now we understand how much more is needed to be able to meet all the physical and psychological needs of elephants in captivity, especially in a cold climate.”

Taking the average of the two minimum indoor temperatures (55°F and 70°F) required by the AZA to establish a minimum outdoor temperature of 62.5°F, and using Wunderground’s historical weather data, the average mean monthly temperature in Seattle for the six months from October through March 2008-2012 (roughly Autumn though Spring) is as follows:

I was a little shocked to discover that, here in a temperate climate most people consider tame and one that Woodland Park Zoo itself describes as “mild” when defending its elephant exhibit, at no point between October through March from 2008-2012 did the average daily temperature in Seattle even meet the AZA’s minimum indoor temperature requirements. So shocked, in fact, that I decided to take a look at the average maximum temperature for that same time period:

Only across October did the average monthly high get above the AZA’s minimum indoor temperature requirements of 55°F, and at no point did the average high reach 62.5°F.

So, basically, for at least half of the past five years unless Watoto, Chai, and Bamboo wanted to brave outdoor temperatures that did not even meet AZA requirements for indoor temperatures, they were confined to indoor barn spaces that are, at best, the size of a one bedroom apartment (858 square feet), and at worst the size of a single-car garage (308 square feet). If a person were to occupy a space of comparative size it would be a room five feet wide – less than the armspan of an average adult and smaller than the size of the average prison cell.

Space smaller than what a prisoner is afforded. That’s what Woodland Park Zoo’s elephants have to look forward to at least six months out of every year.