Marine World Assailed Over Death of baby Elephant; Federal Ban on Park Acquiring New Animals Urged

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VALLEJO, Calif. - The death of a baby elephant this week at the Six Flags Marine World amusement park in Vallejo has sparked sharp criticism from animal advocates, who are calling on the federal government to bar the park from acquiring new animals.

The elephant named Kala was the sixth known animal to die at Marine World since the Premier Parks company took over the park three years ago. Premier Park's death toll at Marine World now stands at two orcas (killer whales), two dolphins, a sea lion who cooked to death from a heating malfunction, and a baby elephant. In addition, a tiger mauled a woman during a 1999 photo session at the park.

"Marine World was warned that ripping this baby elephant away from his mother would have a profoundly negative impact on his well-being, but the park chose to ridicule these warnings and claim that there would be 'no trauma at all,' " said Elliot Katz, DVM, President in Defense of Animals (IDA).

Katz noted that in the wild baby elephants nurse for at least 5 years and the males do not leave their mothers until they are 10-15 years old. (Females stay with their mothers for life.) The stress of being separated from his mother could have impacted Kala's immune system and made him more susceptible to the virus that killed him, noted Katz, a veterinarian. That stress was compounded by being subject to noise from the ever-increasing number of large rides at the park and the growing crowds.

In May, Kala, then barely 2, was shipped to Marine World from the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Mo. Marine World said that it intended to use him as a "stud" and predicted that he would "capture the public's imagination" and "help them learn about the problems of life in the wild."

"If Marine World wanted Kala for breeding purposes, why bring him to the park eight years before he reached sexual maturity? Why take him away from his mother prematurely and send him from the only home he had known?" Katz asked. "The answer is clear - baby elephants draw crowds. At Marine World, pursuit of profit is consistently placed ahead of animal welfare."

"This elephant has taught the public a lesson, but it is not the one that Marine World intended," said Mark Berman of Earth Island Institute (EII). "Kala's tragic story demonstrates quite clearly the stresses placed on elephants by the unnatural conditions of captivity. His death dramatizes the fact that these intelligent and complex animals should not be incarcerated at amusement parks for human entertainment."

The groups have filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Agriculture requesting an investigation of the animal deaths as well as an inquiry into employee allegations of substandard conditions at the park. The groups want the government to bar Marine World from acquiring new animals while the investigation is underway.

San Francisco Chronicle article: Probe of park animal deaths urged; Group criticizes Marine World (Wednesday, December 06, 2000)