Zoo ‘an unsuitable home for elephants’

ANIMAL Law Reform South Africa, the EMS Foundation and traditional leader Chief Stephen Fritz want three elephants – Lammie, Mopane and Ramadiba – released from the Johannesburg Zoo.

They have taken their case to the Gauteng North High Court, Pretoria, and have lodged an application against the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo and other governmental institutions involved in the running of the facility.

The applicants want the continued confinement of the elephants at the zoo to be declared unlawful and unconstitutional.

Secondly, they want the decision to continue to keep the elephants in captivity in the zoo to be reviewed and set aside.

They are asking that the elephants be released into a suitable and appropriate re-wilding facility. According to them, the elephants are being held in conditions unsuited to their basic needs.

EMS Foundation executive director Michele Pickover said colonialism and apartheid disrupted indigenous communities, decimated biodiversity and destroyed individual lives.

“These elephants were cruelly separated from their families, deliberately captured by humans for a life in captivity, experiencing life-long trauma as a result. In captivity, elephants have no agency.

“They have been removed from their context and live unnatural, isolated and denigrated lives.

“An elephant in a zoo is simply an exhibit, deprived of natural environment and social conditions. We are failing to teach children anything about elephants – rather forcing them into submission, for the sake of so-called human entertainment.”

Pickover said a better exhibit would be a live link to the elephants living out their real lives in a natural environment.

In an affidavit, Pickover said: “This affidavit will set out the conditions under which the elephants are living at the Johannesburg Zoo and the impact that their captive circumstances have had and continue to have on their welfare.

“The elephants are housed in a barren enclosure under conditions which fall far short of meeting their fundamental needs. Affidavits deposed to by independent experts across a range of fields relating to elephant behaviour and the welfare of elephants are filed together with this affidavit and form part of this application.”

Fritz, the third applicant in the matter, said imprisoning the sacred elephants showcased the past and the present will to humiliate and disrespect culture and heritage.

He added: “For many years, I’ve felt ashamed and powerless.

“I’m, therefore, relieved that a large number of experts and scientists have united, bringing together a wealth of knowledge to offer these elephants a powerful defence.”

The Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo and City of Joburg said communication between the legal teams had started in December 2021.

“The Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo … wishes to assure the public at large that the elephants are well, and their best interests are and remain our focus … We had this recently confirmed by independent experts, and accordingly the elephants will not be relocated or traumatised in any other manner in the foreseen future.

“We are confident (of) successfully opposing the proceedings launched by the applicants,” it added.