Roger Williams Park Zoo has been ranked the fifth-worst zoo in the country for elephants for their use of bullhooks on elephants by ‘In Defense of Animals‘.
Here’s what they had to say about the Roger Williams Park Zoo.
In 2016, Rhode Island became the first state in the nation to prohibit use of the cruel bullhook – a menacing steel-tipped weapon resembling a fireplace poker – on elephants in traveling shows and circuses. Despite a resolution stating that “use of the bullhook causes pain to elephants,” the state exempted the Roger Williams Park Zoo from its ban. It’s a sad state of affairs when a zoo continues to use an archaic and inhumane weapon to control elephants through fear and pain, even though two states and numerous U.S. cities have banned the device.
Roger Williams Park Zoo has ridiculously stated that without the bullhook “zookeepers and other animal handlers would not be able to manage elephants and they could not be kept in captivity.” This completely ignores the fact that most zoos have left the bullhook behind. Modern elephant management favors the “protected contact” method, which minimizes direct contact between humans and elephants. This method is more humane for elephants, far safer for keepers, and relies on positive reinforcement instead of coercion and brute force.
It’s time for the Roger Williams Park Zoo to stop living in the dark ages of elephant management and join the modern world by giving up its cruel bullhooks and instead switch to the protected contact method to manage African elephants Alice, Ginny, and Kate. Even better, it could end its elephant program entirely and send the captive elephants to a sanctuary accredited by GFAS/Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries.
‘In Defense of Animals’ says “Elephants are quickly disappearing from the planet and the captive animal industry is more than willing to drain wild herds to keep elephants on display. In Defense of Animals has said it before and we’ll say it again: captivity is not conservation and never will be.It’s time for zoos to move away from keeping elephants captive to suffer and die, and instead focus on true conservation, which is protecting elephants where they live, in the wild.”
Here’s the rest of the Top 10 worst for 2018 https://www.idausa.org/campaign/elephants/10-worst-zoos-for-elephants-2018/
Here’s my thought. Zoos are nothing but prisons for animals. Period. Close them all down and stop imprisoning innocent animals!
