http://www.elephants.com/media/SeattlePI_6_18_06.htm

Seattle's Zoo: Free Bamboo

June 18, 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board

Orginal Article

Seattle has little to be proud of in its recent handling of one of its zoo's signature animals, Bamboo. The elephant deserves better.

So does the city. While Bamboo has suffered, city political leaders, with the singular exception of Seattle City Councilman Richard Conlin, have acted largely as if basic decisions about humane treatment are somehow best left to experts. The ugly reality: Leaving it to experts avoids the risk of council members or Mayor Greg Nickels being tarred with some of the stain spread on a former council majority for a malaprop attempt to outlaw circus animal acts.

A lawsuit is not the vehicle we would have chosen to shake the political powers in Seattle from their see-no-suffering-animal denial. But the Northwest Animal Rights Network has filed suit, and it's the one organization willing to make a needed stink about Bamboo's marginalization by Woodland Park Zoo. The city ought to settle what could become an increasingly embarrassing suit by moving Bamboo from the zoo's acre enclosure to a 2,700-acre elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.

That's what the network seeks (at no or minimal cost to the city). Barring new evidence, the elephant sanctuary is the best option.

Woodland Park Zoo officials just brought Bamboo back after a failed attempt to integrate her with two other elephants at Tacoma's well-regarded Point Defiance Zoo. They haven't even voiced a clear plan for the 39-year-old Bamboo, who is entering a time of life that has proved dicey for many captive elephants. There's been talk of eventually shipping her elsewhere, partly to make room for any additional babies.

At one time, Bamboo was one of the most celebrated of zoo residents. That was for good reasons, as local writer, elephant-book author and editor Eric Scigliano explained in Seattle Metropolitan magazine recently. Bamboo was lovable, a favorite of children visiting Woodland Park Zoo. Under a more relaxed management (before a shocking era of all-night chainings), she made friends with keepers. Those friendships have lasted decades. Probably the country's best-informed journalist about elephants, Scigliano writes with awe about her intelligence, particularly her engineering skills. From early on, she was a master lock-picker, bolt-remover and all around handy-trunked girl. Citing a 14-foot-long bamboo pole she would use to bat leaves and fruits her way, Scigliano suggests an academic study of Bamboo's use of tools may be in order.

There are two sides to every lawsuit. But the initial evidence assembled for NARN by attorney Valerie Bittner is powerful. A former Woodland Park director, a veterinarian and the pioneer of captive breeding programs at Portland's zoo all have given affidavits suggesting that poor treatment has made Bamboo unhappy, harmed her psychologically and put her at risk of early death.

There's one other sanctuary besides the one in Tennessee that might be an option. Some other U.S. zoos have more space than Woodland Park, although integrating elephants in small groups is always tricky. But if Seattle's political leaders intend to keep Bamboo captive here, they, and not the zoo experts behind whom they've hidden like frightened prey, have a lot of explaining to do.