The Oregon Zoo’s treatment of elephants

A couple of months ago I was outside my house in Portland tending to some flowers when a neighbor and her son approached. As our conversation progressed, she happily said, “Tell Jamie what you did today.” The little guy smiled up at me and exclaimed, “I saw the baby elephant at the zoo!” Completely caught off guard I struggled to respond, given that the history of the Oregon Zoo’s elephants is not the stuff of children’s stories. 

Before kids are influenced to believe that nonhuman animals are objects for human use and entertainment, they love and empathize with animals, especially baby animals. The mother-child bond and its accompanying stories are powerful. Zoos capitalize on that. Baby Tula-Tu was born this year to much fanfare, yet those eager to pay an admission fee for a glimpse of her tiny elephant body are unlikely to know about the history of her mother, Rose-Tu. Tula-Tu is her mother’s third calf. Rose-Tu’s first calf Samudra is also held at the Oregon Zoo. Their sister Lily, Rose-Tu’s second calf, is dead. Today, on Samudra’s 17th birthday spent in captivity, the Nonhuman Rights Project is raising awareness of the stories of imprisoned elephants at the Oregon Zoo and the dark history of captive breeding at this facility.  

Asian elephants have been held captive by the Oregon Zoo since 1953. Rosy, their first moneymaker, was wild caught when she was about two years old. At that tender age, Rosy likely would have still been nursing from her mother, as wild babies often are not fully weaned until age six. People came from around the Pacific Northwest to view Rosy. Later in 1962, when baby elephant Packy was born at the zoo, it became evident just how lucrative elephant breeding could be. Zoo visitors waited in a half-mile-long line to pay to see him, and zoo attendance tripled. Packy became a symbol of the value to be gained by breeding elephants in captivity. The Oregon Zoo used Packy to impregnate female Asian elephants, including his half-sister Hanako, twice. Inbreeding occurred and babies died. 

Rose-Tu was born in captivity at the Oregon Zoo on August 31, 1994, along with her unnamed female twin who did not survive. On April 17, 2000, when she was only five years old, Rose-Tu was severely beaten. Fred Marion, an elephant keeper trying to move her between areas within the elephant enclosure, became angry when Rose-Tu was confused by his commands. He lashed out at her, beating her with a bull hook for 35-40 minutes. Bob Lee, former director of Animal Care and Conservation at the Oregon Zoo, witnessed the egregious abuse. A police report of the incident indicated that Lee “observed Marion move the hook of the ankus under her tail flap, turn it, and place it into Rose-Tu’s anus. Lee stated that Marion then jerked down twice with the handle of the ankus.” Rose-Tu’s injuries included 176 puncture wounds and lacerations in addition to being sodomized with a bull hook. She may have suffered more injuries than these, but she was so severely traumatized that it was difficult to examine her following her beating.

Only seven years after her traumatic abuse, Rose-Tu was impregnated to further the Oregon Zoo’s elephant breeding program. Female Asian elephants reach sexual maturity between ages 15-16 and have a gestation period of 21-22 months. However, Rose-Tu was impregnated at around age 12 and gave birth to her first calf, Samudra, on August 23, 2008. Rose-Tu did not accept her newborn; instead she attempted to stomp him to death. Infanticide was avoided when Oregon Zoo staff intervened to save Samudra from being killed by his own mother.  Infanticide is rare in wild Asian elephants. It is unknown why Rose-Tu tried to kill her first baby.  It has been suggested that the severe trauma experienced by Rose-Tu when she was severely beaten at age five may have impacted her ability to mother little Samudra.

In 2012, baby Samudra was featured in an Oregon Zoo campaign asking voters to approve a $125 million bond measure to pay for zoo improvements including expansion of the elephant exhibit and an offsite elephant reserve. Using Samudra’s image helped the bond measure pass.  Although $57 million was spent on increasing the 1.5-acre elephant habitat to an approximately 6-acre “Elephant Lands” exhibit, the offsite reserve has not been built. Baby Samudra was also lucrative for driving ticket sales. The Oregon Zoo set new attendance records following his birth.    

When Samundra was still a baby, Rose-Tu was again impregnated. She gave birth to her second calf Lily on November 30, 2012. Public excitement about Lily’s birth turned to outrage when it was learned that Lily along with her father Tusko belonged to Have Trunk Will Travel (now called The Preserve), an entertainment company that leased elephants to zoos and parks and rented elephants for events and movies. The contract indicated that the second, fourth, and sixth calves sired by Tusko would be the property of the entertainment company. In 2013, the Oregon Zoo agreed to purchase Lily and Tusko for $400,000. However, Lily died in captivity on November 29, 2018, only one day before her sixth birthday, of elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV).

Before euthanizing Tusko, the Oregon Zoo had planned to breed him with Chendra.  She is a Borneo pygmy elephant, a smaller subspecies of Asian elephants, and weighs around 4,500 pounds. At that time, male Asian elephant Tusko weighed 13,300 pounds.  After Tusko’s death, Chendra was impregnated by another male elephant at the Zoo and suffered a miscarriage.  It is surprising that the Oregon Zoo had planned to breed a Borneo pygmy elephant with an Asian elephant. Breeding Chendra with a male Asian elephant could risk her health and would not serve to further any species survival plan because the resulting baby would be an unnatural hybrid.

Over the 72 years of elephant captivity at the Oregon Zoo, there are too many lowlights to detail here. Each year In Defense of Animals (IDA) publishes the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants list.  The Oregon Zoo has made the list 13 times, most recently in 2023. This list of shame is not subjective. IDA’s rating criteria for top 10 Worst status includes factors such as use of abusive training tools, forced performances and exploitation, inadequate space, chronic confinement, lack of natural enrichment, harsh climates, absence of retirement to sanctuaries, and social isolation. USDA reports, veterinary records, consultations with elephant scientists and other data are used for zoo facility assessments. The Oregon Zoo has made IDA’s 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants list more than any other zoo for reasons including risky breeding practices, high death rates, and disease outbreaks.  

Baby Tula-Tu’s life in captivity has just begun, and it is likely that the Oregon Zoo will impregnate her in the future. Preserving elephant freedom is the only just path forward for elephant conservation. Elephants must be allowed to freely choose their partners, form matriarchal herds, and live their lives on their own terms. Elephants belong in the wild. Those who cannot be released back to their natural habitats must be released, whenever possible, to a sanctuary where they are free to exercise their autonomy away from captive breeding and bull hooks. Parents and educators should encourage children to learn about elephants in ways that don’t sanction their exploitation. Let’s not tell fairytales about elephants in captivity. For them, their lives of imprisonment are anything but.  

Photo courtesy of Free the Oregon Zoo Elephants