On the Fate of Lucky, the Elephant at San Antonio Zoo

I wrote this article for my environmental ethics course in response to support the movement that is working to free Lucky, an elephant at the San Antonio Zoo. I figured this might be of interest to people interested in animal rights.

Lucky, an elephant at San Antonio Zoo has been captive for almost five decades, even more than 24-25 years which is called life imprisonment for humans. Source: http://bit.ly/fBvfmb

Lucky, a 53 year old Asian female elephant currently at San Antonio Zoo needs to be freed and transferred to Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Despite living in unfavorable conditions, she has lived longer than any other elephant at San Antonio Zoo and remained as the lone survivor until another Asian elephant named Boo was recently acquired. Taking a non-anthropocentric stance and using Dale Jamieson’s arguments against zoos, I argue that zoos are an unsuitable place for elephants, the largest land mammals on the Earth. Jamieson argues that animal captivity in zoos is immoral when it fails to provide any substantial entertainment or educational experience to humans. Any child or student would learn more about an elephant by reading a book, watching animal planet documentaries or even Disney cartoons than seeing the giant locked up miserably in a space that does not reflect its natural habitat. On the contrary, observing Lucky in a static position for a long time might lead a child to believe that elephants are generally lazy which would be an incorrect inference since elephants in the wild on average walk more than ten miles daily (IDA Letter). In addition, watching a static animal in a cramped space is far from entertaining. Utilitarians such as Peter Singer might argue that animal captivity can be justified if the total utility (entertainment and education) provided is greater than the negative utility (suffering) of the animal. However, SA Zoo as an institution has failed to amuse or educate its visitors about an elephant and thus can no longer claim that Lucky needs to remain at the zoo to serve public interest.

According to the Voice for Animals, most zoo elephants die before reaching the age of 40 while on average elephants live up to 60 in the wild. Radical egalitarians like Tom Regan would consider this as a violation of the animal’s “Right to Life” while Jamieson would term this as violence since captivity prevents the mammal from realizing its full potential. Furthermore, Jamieson would fail to see any reason for Lucky’s presence in SA Zoo since it has neither been used for any kind of life-saving scientific research nor reared to preserve an endangered species. In fact, he would be appalled to realize that a happy and healthy four year old female Asian elephant was captured and transported thousands of miles away to be placed among non-native African elephants ostensibly for entertainment and education of American population.

San Antonio Zoo. Source: http://bit.ly/fVj0Tk

It appears that zoos captivate the biggest land mammals on the Earth to display it as a treasure and use it as a major attraction for visitors just like kings in the past used to own the best and most fierce gladiators to entertain its public. Animal captivity in zoos shows that even though [human] slavery is over, animal slavery is still in practice. The director of San Antonio Zoo, Steve McCusker kept Lucky, an Asian elephant with an African elephant despite the risks of contagion. After 49 years, he still refuses to grant her the freedom that she is entitled to. Ignoring the recommendations of In Defense of Animals (IDA), Voice for Animals and other animal welfare groups, McCusker has chosen to add yet another Asian elephant named Boo to the zoo’s collection instead of sending Lucky to the sanctuary. The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has agreed to bear all costs associated to Lucky’s transportation but it seems McCusker is too reluctant to free its “slave” without compensation. After all, zoos are business enterprises set up to maximize profit rather than animal care centers set out of overflowing passion. Any sane human who cares for animals would not advocate caging of animals since zoos are like prisons where innocent animals are caged for no discernible crime.

Regan does not see animals as mere resources and as a radial egalitarian might argue for an immediate rehabilitation of Lucky in native forests of Thailand, its true home. But keeping in perspective the fact that Lucky has been living in a zoo environment for the last 49 years, it might be rational to rehabilitate her at Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee where she can be taken care of in old age, if she were to need help. To prolong Lucky’s captivity any further would be a crime since she deserves to be closer to the nature, walk several miles every day for which her feet is designed, meet native mates and experience the air of freedom before taking her last breath.