Dickerson Park Zoo Scene of Gruesome Death
PETA is calling on Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri, to shutter its deadly and cruel elephant exhibit after an elephant attack this morning left senior zookeeper John Bradford dead.
A Legacy of Misery
It’s no surprise that the elephant, Patience, lashed out after years of stress-inducing, unnatural imprisonment. Patience had been taken from her family when she was captured from the wild. She was shipped to the U.S. and then moved from zoo to zoo. She is now confined to a tiny 1.5-acre enclosure, unable to travel more than a few yards, let alone the 30 miles a day that she might have walked with her mother, aunts, and other family members, had she not been kidnapped from her home and deprived of their company.
Not only did Patience have her freedom taken from her, her son was also stolen from her when he was only 18 months old. Elephants are sensitive and careful mothers, nursing their children until they are at least 5 years old. Males stay with their mothers until they reach adolescence, and females stay with their mothers for life. Patience doesn’t know that her baby died six months after being shipped off to Six Flags.
Culture of Death
John Bradford is one of many who have died in Dickerson Park Zoo’s substandard and unsafe elephant exhibit. Of 10 baby elephants who have been born at the zoo, only two are still alive today. Many died after contracting EEHV, a deadly herpes virus that is virtually unknown in the wild and has been linked to the stress of captivity. And at least one was abused: The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) fined the zoo for abusing one elephant with a bullhook—a sharp metal-tipped weapon that resembles a fireplace poker and is routinely used to keep elephants “in line.”
Bradford’s death was wholly preventable, had the zoo left Patience with her herd as nature intended. It also would not have occurred if the zoo had handled Patience only in protected contact—the safer, more humane management system used by all reputable sanctuaries and zoos. PETA is calling on the USDA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to investigate the incident.
You Can Help
Contact Dickerson Park Zoo and demand that it close its elephant exhibit and send Patience and the three other remaining elephants to a reputable sanctuary. Never go to a zoo or circus in which elephants are abused for “entertainment.”
