An elephant throws dirt at the Toronto Zoo. The Toronto elephants’ departure for California — originally set for Monday — appears increasingly doubtful.
Fed up with the “shenanigans” of Toronto Zoo management, Bob Barker is backing off his commitment to donate $880,000 to fly the zoo’s three African elephants to a California retirement home — unless there’s an “ironclad guarantee” about the use of his money.
In the latest chapter of a venomous struggle over the fate of the aging elephants, Barker told the Star he’s still fully committed to paying for the flight to take Iringa, 42, Toka, 42 and Thika, 31, to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), near Sacramento.
“But I think these people are capable of anything and I’m just not willing to lose a million dollars because of what’s going on up there,” he said in an interview from Los Angeles. “I fear they’d do anything to sabotage the transfer.”
The elephants’ departure — originally set for Monday — appears increasingly doubtful.
The situation is so ugly Toronto Zoo chief executive John Tracogna speaks to PAWS director Ed Stewart only through his lawyer and has forbidden sanctuary staffers from contacting zoo workers. PAWS directors want future meetings with zoo management recorded due to allegedly toxic personal comments in past sessions.
Included in the debate have been false accusations that PAWS elephants have TB and caustic Facebook posts, including by zookeepers, hurling insults at Stewart and city councillors who back the move. One called Stewart “an evil, lying man.”
And now Barker’s no-strings-attached promise of $880,000 to fund the trip has hardened into a decision the money must either be put in escrow or underwritten by the City of Toronto to ensure it’s used properly and he’s not out-of-pocket. More lawyers, more accountants.
Barker insists “this nonsense” doesn’t reflect on the city. “I love Canada and Toronto and I have a stack of letters from Canadians thanking me and apologizing for the zoo’s actions . . . I know the vast majority of people are 100 per cent on the side of PAWS.”
At the heart of this story are three elephants who live on just over a hectare at the Toronto Zoo, six months after council voted to send them to PAWS. The world-renowned sanctuary is accredited by, among others, the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries. Unlike zoos, PAWS is not allowed to breed its elephants, or allow any kind of research or transfers to other institutions.
“I am repulsed by what’s going on in Toronto’s name. Their behaviour is abhorrent,” says Councillor Michelle Berardinetti, who spearheaded last October’s council vote. “It is outrageous, scandalous and the ones who suffer will be the elephants.
Related: Bob Barker donates $800K toward elephant flight from Toronto Zoo to California
“It’s clear that zoo management never had any intention of sending the elephants to the sanctuary and they’ve been using a propaganda war and smear campaign to dig in from the beginning and thwart the will of council.”
Tracogna hasn’t yet reviewed the history of PAWS’ elephants — the “due diligence” referred to in the contract — and his lawyer, City of Toronto solicitor Robert Ashley, is dickering over terms under which he might do so. He hinted his team will go back to council to try and get the decision reversed if they find anything “significant (about PAWS) . . . that council was not made aware of.”
They appear to be beating the bushes to find it.
Dr. William Rapley, a vet and the zoo’s executive director of conservation, education and wildlife, recently called the California Fish and Wildlife Association, among other groups, asking for an investigation into PAWS. Apparently he was told the association has high regard for Stewart and his work. “No, it doesn’t say we can do that in the contract,” said Tracogna. “But it doesn’t say we can’t do it either.”
It seems unlikely that Rapley would sign off on a good assessment of PAWS.
Tracogna told the Star he declined to participate in a recent conference call with Stewart on Ashley’s advice. That’s when Stewart began to lose hope about welcoming Iringa, Toka and Thika at PAWS, despite having already sent crates to Toronto to train them for air travel.
From California, Stewart sounds weary in a telephone interview: “All we’ve ever done is offer these elephants a new home. But it seems to us there’s a witch hunt being carried out against us . . . We’ve never seen anything like this in all of our dealings with other cities and organizations.
“You’re up there. Please, can you tell me — Who’s in charge?
Berardinetti says it’s perfectly clear who’s in charge: The City of Toronto owns the zoo and the animals, and the staffers are city employees, including Tracogna. She says she’s tired of a city agency that does as it pleases, and worries another winter will go by without the animals leaving.
Toronto’s elephant trainers, who think their “ladies” are happiest with humans, have fought the move.
“I would never question Toronto’s elephant keepers and I am confident they are giving these elephants the best possible care. That has never been in doubt,” says Stewart.
“Elephants don’t really fit anywhere in captivity. If you see elephants in the wild, there’s no comparison with how they are in captivity in terms of quality of life. That’s the first and most important point.”
But if they must be captive, world-renowned experts rave about PAWS, with its heated barn and jacuzzi on more than 30 hectares of rolling grasslands, with a mud pond, lakes and 24-hour veterinary care.
Cynthia Moss, director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants in Kenya, wrote council last fall: “I have been to PAWS several times and I am always immensely impressed watching those elephants looking and acting like free-ranging elephants in Africa and Asia.
“Everything about their postures and behaviours (and I am an expert on elephant behavior) indicate contentment and well-being. It is truly amazing what happens to elephants when they go to PAWS.”
A slim ray of hope appeared late Friday.
Berardinetti challenged Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who went public with concerns about the sanctuary, to go to PAWS with her next week (on their own dime) to tour “this world-renowned facility and meet with the professional staff and follow up on due digligence.” She thinks Tracogna should join the trip.
Mammoliti told the Star: “I’m going to seriously try and take her up on her offer. I have a tonne of questions and I would go to PAWS specifically to have them answered. I owe it to everybody to see for myself.
“It’s a must for Tracogna to join us,” he said.
Mammoliti says he, too, has been disgusted by politics swirling around the elephants but he blames zoo staffers, rather than management, adding: “It’s primarily all about politics.”
Meanwhile, Barker is hopeful he’ll have to come up with that $880,000 after all.
He says nobody thought Maggie, an ailing African elephant from the Anchorage Zoo in Alaska, sent to PAWS in 2007, would do well. Zoo director Pat Lampi, who fought the transfer, is now PAWS’ biggest supporter.
Before ringing off, Barker enthused: “You know that Maggie had fallen down in Alaska and couldn’t even get up. Now she’s the star of the show. She goes everywhere and she trumpets all the time to let everybody know just what she thinks. It’s wonderful.”
Maggie spends her days with three other African females — the herd destined to welcome Toronto’s own three divas. If politics allow.
More on the Star:
The Toronto Zoo’s departing elephants have squashed its accreditation. Thanks, Bob Barker.
Toronto Zoo loses accreditation over plan to ship elephants to sanctuary
Bob Barker donates $800K toward elephant flight from Toronto Zoo to California
Courtesy of Toby Styles
This is going to be the last word printed on these pages regarding the Toronto Zoo elephants, unless something real earth shattering comes up. Frankly, I am bored, and tired of all the nonsense. I have posted all side's of the story on these pages, so that folks following along can make a valid decision on who's right and who's wrong. I also wanted folks to understand the true "insanity" that has become "elephant issues." Just nut's in a world at war!!!!!!!
To paraphrase a hit single of one of the greatest singer/song writers of all time Waylon Jennings "Don't You Think This Elephant Bit's Done Got Out of Hand?"
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