FACT SHEET: Oklahoma City Zoo worse than Woodland Park Zoo

Due Diligence Options for Chai and Bamboo

A survey commissioned by Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants regarding the views of the Seattle public on Woodland Park Zoo’s elephant program.

Lisa Kane’s rebuttal to the Zoos’ Claims Concerning Wildlife Conservation
Lisa Kane, JD, author of An Optimal Future for Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (linked below), responds point-by-point to the common Zoo arguments for keeping captive elephants in unnatural zoo enclosures. Her extensive credentials are included at the link above.

Optimal Future_KP_4-12_web.pdf
An Optimal Future for Woodland Park Zoo Elephants addresses the history, current state, and future options for Chai, Bamboo and Watoto, the three elephants on display at Woodland Park Zoo.  This comprehensive report includes input from local, national and international elephant experts. Scientific knowledge has exploded, obligating us to examine this evidence and reevaluate our long-held assumptions about keeping elephants in Woodland Park Zoo. Also be sure to read Lisa Kane’s rebuttal to the zoo’s criticism of An Optimal Future.

An Optimal Future reveals the inherent physical and psychological impoverishment these far-ranging, intelligent creatures face in a small urban zoo—a sad reality not understood by an uninformed observer. Lisa Kane can be reached at lisafkane@hotmail.com.

The Zoo’s Task Force Report: The conflict of interest is clear from the first sentence of the report’s Executive Summary: “The Task Force on the Woodland Park Zoo Elephant Program and Exhibit (Task Force) was created by the Woodland Park Zoo Board of Directors (WPZ Board) and charged with conducting an objective and transparent review of the Woodland Park Zoo elephants’ health and care, and the value of the elephant program and exhibit to the zoo’s education and conservation objectives.”

An Elephant in the Room: The Science and Well-Being of Elephants in Captivity, Forthman, Kane, Hancocks, Waldau. Full text of this book is available free of charge on their website.

City of Seattle Operating Agreement With WPZ

PAWS Sanctuary vs. Woodland Park Zoo
A comparison between PAWS Sanctuary in California and the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

AZA Standards for Elephant Management and Care (April 2012)

Animal Welfare Act – Code of Federal Regulations

Complaint for Injunctive Relief
This legal Complaint for Injunctive Relief was filed with the Superior Court of the state of Washington for King County in June 2010, with help from the Animal Legal Defense Fund. The lawsuit is brought against the City of Seattle, asking that it “cease its waste and unlawful use of City funds to support ongoing illegal conduct at the Zoo.”

PAWS Wildlife Sanctuary website

The Elephant Sanctuary website