If you think the long lines, ornery families and overwhelming artificiality that constitute the Disney World experience seem like a form of psychological torture, just be glad you're not an elephant.
Disney's Animal Kingdom park made the group In Defense of Animals' "Terrible Ten." That is, the ten worst zoos for elephants in the U.S.
The list includes facilities where the animals are subjected to "solitary suffering for years, and those enduring extreme confinement, hypothermia and frostbite."
Animal Kingdom came in at #10.
The worst offender? Natural Bridge Zoo in Virginia.
IDA said in a press release Monday that such facilities often tout a very pro-environmental conservation message, but what goes on behind closed doors can be another story.
“At a time of greater awareness of the plight of elephants in the wild, who are dying for the illegal ivory trade, it is shocking that captive elephants continue to suffer and die prematurely at the very zoos that are claiming to help save these species," Toni Frohoff, Ph.D., Elephant & Cetacean Scientist for IDA said in a written statement. "The public has a right to know what is really happening to elephants in zoos and the fallacy behind zoos ‘conservation’ claims. It is time to stop keeping elephants in zoos.”
Disney made the list primarily because of premature elephant deaths, including of a pregnant elephant who was being transferred to an offsite medical facility.
Given the extensive research showing how intelligent, complex and social these animals are, it should be a shock that people are still forcing them to live in terrible conditions. Sadly, it's not.
"Maybe it’s time to 'Let It Go,' as in ending the elephant attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom," says a line in IDA's press release. Nooice!
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2015.