I think elephants have a place in selected zoos. There certainly is no hesitation to recommend that if a zoo is willing to devote the financial resources, the facilities resources, and the personnel to zoo elephant care, there ought to be open options to do that. It requires cooperation from zoo administrative staff, and I think that to do it without formal training of those elephant keepers, and then the practical apprenticeship, if you will, are very important. And the places that I’ve seen where elephants are really integrated into the program are places where selected individuals, who by their own selection have devoted their careers to elephant care are successful. And whether you’re in a protected contact situation, which most zoos are working toward, or are in already, you can accomplish any of those things in any system, whether it be free contact or protective contact. And I feel that elephants have a place in society, I think that they have a place in circuses, and elephants are not being abused, we’re taking cognizant of their need for certain things like exercise, but I’m not in favor of forcing an elephant to walk 20 miles a day ’cause they don’t do that in the wild unless they have to for food. So we need to work at a normal social interaction with herds of elephants, and that’s a real challenge in this day in time, we have elephant groups where they’re incompatible and will remain incompatible essentially throughout their lives. And those facilities that have bull elephants, you’ve got to know how to manage them separate from the females because that’s the way they live in a biological matriarchal order.
