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Six Flags Marine World and Wild SafariOut of 21 Six Flags theme parks in North America, just two facilities—Marine World, California, and Wild Safari, New Jersey—exhibit elephants. Both Six Flags facilities deprive these intelligent, sensitive animals of their most basic needs, including the opportunity to walk great distances, forage, explore, play, and socialize in a herd environment.Six Flags is clearly doing a poor job of caring for elephants. With eight elephant deaths in the last decade at Marine World and at least four dangerous incidents, it's time for the company to get out of the animal business and focus on what it does best-providing theme-park entertainment. The following is a list of elephant deaths: March 2003: Misha's calf was stillborn. November 2002: Tika, a 24-year-old African elephant, died from a massive infection caused by a dead calf decomposing in her womb. October 2002: A baby elephant died during labor. November 2000: Six Flags ignored warnings that a still-nursing baby elephant named Kala should not be separated from his mother at Dickerson Park Zoo. Severely stressed and traumatized, 2-year-old Kala died from a viral infection just six months after the move. 1999: Judy, 33, was euthanized because of leg deformities. 1998: Ginny was euthanized at 58 after suffering from chronic arthritis. June 1996: Twenty-seven-year-old Bandula was euthanized because of chronic arthritis and severe joint pain. November 1995: Mardji, a 44-year-old African elephant, was euthanized after suffering from chronic bone inflammation. In June 2004, an elephant keeper was critically injured after being gored by an elephant named Misha at Six Flags Marine World. Six Flags uses cruel, outdated circus-style training. Elephants are punished with bullhooks and forced to give rides and perform tricks. It comes as no surprise to PETA that a frustrated Misha snapped and attacked a keeper for the second time. In June 2001, Misha, apparently apprehensive about the daily cleaning of an incision that was made so that she could be artificially inseminated, attacked a keeper, pushing him to the ground and into some bushes. In 1991, five people were injured during elephant rides at Marine World, and in 1993, an elephant rampaged and threw a rider onto a cement path, resulting in a $600,000 settlement. Following numerous tragic incidents such as these, the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) issued a recommendation that zoos eliminate elephant rides. As an accredited facility, Marine World is operating in direct violation of AZA policy. Furthermore, the exhibits at Marine World are located in close proximity to rides, causing stress to the elephants who endure vibrations and constant noise. At Safari Park, the elephants are kept in a drive-thru exhibit, which subjects them to a steady stream of vehicles, exhaust, and unsupervised visitors. Six Flags has accrued numerous violations to the minimum standards of care established in the federal Animal Welfare Act. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited Six Flags for failure to have a full-time veterinarian, failure to have a sufficient number of adequately trained employees, failure to have a program of veterinary care, subjecting animals to excessive heat that resulted in death, failure to provide environmental enrichment, failure to have a written exercise plan, failure to maintain facilities, caging animals in dangerous conditions, failure to provide adequate shelter, poor housekeeping, unsanitary feeding practices, insufficient perimeter fencing, and inadequate drainage. What You Can DoIt is in the best interests of employees, visitors, and the elephants that Six Flags permanently close its elephant exhibits. Please write polite letters to Six Flags executives to ask that they follow the progressive lead of 14 U.S. zoos and make the compassionate decision to close the elephant exhibits at Marine World and Wild Safari and retire the elephants to sanctuaries:Mark Shapiro, President, CEO, and Director |
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