A Tennessee elephant sanctuary would take Seattle’s elephants, says Woodland Park Zoo never contacted them

On Wednesday night, Woodland Park Zoo’s Asian elephants, Chai and Bamboo, were loaded onto a flat bed truck and began their 35 to 40 hour journey to their new home at the Oklahoma City Zoo. Elephant activists from around the world urged the zoo to send these elephants to a sanctuary in California or Tennessee, and the Elephant Justice Project even filed a couple of lawsuits to keep the zoo from moving the animals to Oklahoma, which they did not win. Woodland Park Zoo CEO Deborah Jensen says the sanctuaries don’t meet their criteria.

“Tennessee Sanctuary is not accepting new animals. They have health problems in their herd and they’re not accepting new animals.”

But The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee says that’s simply not true. Communication manager Mary Beth Ikard says Woodland Park Zoo has never contacted them.

“We have not had a conversation with them about sanctuary for Chai and Bamboo, no. We are open to new elephants. We are here to serve as a forever home for North America’s population of captive elephants, especially as they are poised to retire.”

She says Jensen is right about one thing: some elephants at the sanctuary arrived with tuberculosis.

“They’re primarily circus elephants and they live in a completely separate barn and habitat. We are adding facilities where we can be prepared to welcome an elephant immediately if we need to.”

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee gives the elephants 2,700 acres to roam free. They have total autonomy, can sleep where ever and whenever they want, they can pick food from trees and bushes like they would in the wild and public visitors are not allowed, giving the elephants a true retirement after years of doing tricks and being on display. So why wouldn’t Woodland Park want that for Chai and Bamboo?

Carol Buckley co-founded the Tennessee sanctuary in 1995, and is now the CEO of Elephant Aid International. She’s spent 40 years doing hands on elephant rescue.

“The zoos don’t want their elephants to go to sanctuaries and it’s not because the sanctuaries aren’t good for elephants. It’s because the zoos truly see themselves as the experts. And when elephants go to a sanctuary, zoos get bad press and they don’t like that. They have proven they do not put their elephants first. They put themselves and their institutions first. They will send their elephants to a situation that is not healthy for the elephants and they’re saving bad publicity.”

Jenson, the zoo’s CEO, thinks the elephants need to be in the public eye.

“From a philosophy perspective, we want there to be an opportunity for the public to see these animals and to learn about these majestic animals and the plight they are facing in the wild. The sanctuaries don’t meet our goal for philosophy.”

Meanwhile, Buckley is looking at land in Texas and Georgia to open a new elephant sanctuary. She says it’s very much needed in order to retire more elephants who are in captivity.

“Well, the new sanctuary would start out clean,” Buckley says. “It wouldn’t have any elephants that were exposed to TB. The reality is, as time passed, and elephants came in, it would be the same situation. The elephants that come from zoos and circuses have been exposed to TB. It’s not as if the sanctuaries creates the TB. So the new sanctuary would create a new and clean place to start over and, in my vision, TB elephants would be forever kept separate.”

As for Chai and Bamboo, she doesn’t think it’s too late to get them to a sanctuary.

“If Oklahoma wants to take these elephants, then they better be prepared that the world of animal activists are going to be on them now,” says Buckley. “And they should be! Because even Oklahoma isn’t the right place for the elephants they already have there.”

I also reached out to PAWS the sanctuary in California, but have yet to hear back.