Free Zoo Tonight at 6:30: The zoo does an annual neighborhood appreciation thing, just show up at 6:30 at the West Plaza on Phinney Ave. N. between N. 55th & N. 56th Sts. Chat with your neighbors, enjoy ice cream, and hang out with the zoo’s new maned wolves. There’s no residency check, parking is free, so bring anyone you like.
Unfortunately, the new, fancy, 15 million dollar “Banyan Wilds” exhibit will not be open to you. Apparently the new animals there are still getting acclimated and they don’t want to stress them with night time visitors yet.
Zoo Plans: I learned about the zoo plans for the next few years last night. This is what they are:
- 2016: Zoomazium upgrade with a temporary butterfly house outside and an outdoor stage addition.
- 2017: Presentation upgrade to the raptor show and maybe other shows.
- 2018: Night exhibit house will be refurbished and reopened! I remember the anteaters sticking their tongues out through a seam on the side of the glass window and licking my fingers for the salt. Good times.
- 2019: Maybe they do something with the elephant exhibit, but they’re not sure yet, the exhibit space that’s there now is only good for giant animals like rhinos.
The interim zoo CEO, Bruce Bohmke, says the elephant exhibit shut down because Hansa died and then the momma elephant (Chai? Bamboo?) went through elephantopause and there weren’t more elephants they could bring in despite trying. They decided there was no way to have a breeding program so they ended the program. He claimed protests had no effect other than to complicate departure of the elephants.
Free Movie Tonight at 7:00: Meaningful Movies offers a documentary of Taiwan from an aerial perspective, “Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above” introduces viewers to the island nation’s rich landscapes while also revealing the environmental effects of human development.
Also, we met at the farmer’s market to discuss moving the Meaningful Movies to Meridian Park in the picnic shelter / bandstand area after the farmer’s market. It looks promising- important people think it’s a good idea, but the key issue is getting the parks department sign off. More updates as that gets on track (or doesn’t). For now, you’re still going to be in a rented church basement.
Free Cars on Saturday from 8 to 4: Well, it’s not Oprah, so these will just be for looking at. The Greenwood Car Show comes back around on the calendar. It’s an excellent outing with a toddler. Check out all the grown up toddlers and their awesome cars. They’re the bestest!
Banyan Wilds: Zoo doesn’t want to stress the animals at night but it’s acceptable to stress them in the day? Confinement/captivity is unnatural and diminishes our humanity. Sending the elephants to suffer in another zoo did just that. Shameful.
Interim zoo CEO, Bruce Bohmke should get up to speed on what taxpayers wanted for Chai and Bamboo. He can start here:
http://www.capitolhilltimes.com/2015/06/among-the-animals-seattle-politics-on-animal-welfare/
If it were not for ‘protesters’ the zoo would continue to have closed board meetings. Oh and the transport of Chai and Bamboo was expedited (into dangerous weather conditions-per NOAH) due to public outrage over them going to another zoo and not a sanctuary.
this new CEO is just as shameful and and disrespectful to the community as the previous one! I would not attend any event at this or any other zoo, which is nothing more than an anachronistic excuse for animal abuse and torture! BOYCOTT ALL ZOOS!!!!!!!
Boycott the Woodland Park Zoo even if it is free!
The perfect job for Bruce Bohmke or Deborah Jensen would be Public Relations for the new underground primate lab at the UW.
The interim zoo CEO, Bruce Bohmke should be called upon to explain to the Children Helping Elephants and the thousands who signed their petition for sanctuary and a better life for the elephants on 15 acres at PAWS sanctuary why WPZ made them go to OZ where they exist in a tiny paddock and eventually will share a small area with several elephants, have to do tricks and Chai may be bred. At PAWS they would be retired to enjoy a wonderful new life. A majorority in Seattle supported sanctuary. Why didn’t the zoo follow the wishes of citizens and the mayor and the city council members who supported sanctuary? Why chose this hellhole in tornado country instead of peaceful acres and acres giving them peace and joy and letting them be elephants.
Why is Wallyhood such a big WPZ promoter? Does Wallyhood also support jails, prisons and detention facilities for innocent prisoners?
I hope all you anti-zoo crusaders are also vegan. I’m not excusing the zoo, particularly the elephant thing which was pretty gross, but as long as the general public sentiment supports captive animals in dismal, brutal out-of-sight warehouses for meat and other products, it’s hard to understand why so fixated on the zoo.
Donn, actually a lot of them are Vegan or vegetarian, and even those who aren’t support humane practices. I agree that the elephant things was pretty gross. I think the general public doesn’t really know what’s going and people who do know are trying to help others learn. I know I didn’t know and had no idea what goes on either in zoos, or with poaching, or with as you said so well the captive animals under terrible conditions we use for food even though I have always loved animals and have been pretty much a vegetarian and sometimes vegan since the late ’60s. All I can do now is try and speak for all the animals who can’t speak for themselves. And what about all the animal testing labs? I can’t stand it that they have dogs and cats in there or rabbits or mice or any animals.
Woodland Park Zoo has had three warnings from the USDA in the past 2 years for violations of animal care standards.
WPZ receives $7million in city tax dollars annually. The WPZ Board appears to have undue influence over our elected officials. WPZ has refused to release financial records related to the elephant program, despite numerous requests over the past 9 years.
It seems only reasonable that zoo neighbors, like Wallyhood, need to ask bigger questions and present deeper information than just “free night at the zoo”.
The problem with the WPZ public/ private partnership and contract might be that elected officials have no influence over the WPZ Board. The contract binds WPZ to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). AZA has undue influence over the careers of zoo administrations in North America. Perpetuating elephant captivity in North America is all about the salaries and career opportunities of zoo administrators.
Hi,
yes vegan. I don’t support cruelty in any form. Would love to see the elephants in a place where they can roam and enjoy being an elephant. Have seen them in Africa, though these are Asian elephants, and the zoo in no way is similar to their natural way of life. So children learn that elephants live a miserable existence in a tiny yard, do tricks, walk on concrete, have arthritis. This is not a good learning experience. So I am a vegan and the issue is cruelty. Elephants walk say 20 miles a day in the wild, live in families, are kind to each other, are brilliant. The zoo doesn’t show any of this behavior.
The zoo has been struggling to retain credibility with double talk and Orwellian language for years.
WPZ has two full time lobbyists at Seattle City Hall. The zoo gets 1/3 of its budget from tax dollars. Whether you go to the zoo or not, you are supporting this undue influence.
Zoos are a colonial concept that has morphed into an entertainment industry, cleverly disguised as “education and conservation”.
The only lesson children learn by going to the zoo is that it is acceptable to keep animals out of their natural context, in unsuitable conditions, without any of the social interactions for which these animals evolved. We all learn more about wild animals these days from videos of them in the wild or in sanctuaries than from seeing them in totally unnatural enclosures.
For the amount of money the zoo spent on transport of Chai and Bamboo to another unsuitable zoo ($141,000), wild habitat for elephants could have been protected. But, what the zoo says they do and what they actually do are very different things.
Transport to sanctuary for Chai and Bamboo would have been donated and would have cost the zoo and Seattle nothing.
Yes Don, I’m a vegan “anti-zoo crusader”. This Free Zoo campaign is a joke. Nothing about the zoo is free. They take $7 million of our tax dollars every year and have no accountability to the public. These very tax paying citizens were even denied access to ‘public’ board meetings until last December. This would not have happened had the “anti-zoo crusaders” not staged a protest.
Remember the Seattle City Council incumbents who went along with the “elephant experts” and vote for anyone else. July 6th is the deadline to register to vote/ update your address in time for the August 4th primary. (July 27th is the deadline if you go in person to the KIng County Elections office in Renton)
Of the city council members running for re-election, only Sawant and O’Brien voted to represent their constituents’ wishes and expedite an ordinance for Bamboo and Chai to go to a sanctuary. Harrell, Bagshaw, Burgess and Godden all abandoned the elephants and now six elephants will be crowded into 2.6 boring, flat acres in a cold climate. Shameful.
Zoo protesters: Why aren’t you focused on protesting “Art of the Table”, where they’re serving Foie Gras?
See: http://artofthetable.net/category/menu/
See: http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/ducks-geese/foie-gras/
Are you seriously equating an cruelty to an elephant with cruelty to a duck? In either matter, I will never eat at any restaurant that serves Foie Gras or visit WPZ until Bamboo, Sri, and Chai are in a sanctuary.
Raven- How about this for an equation:
crime level = animal count * level of suffering * percent intelligence relative to humans
Let’s say ducks are about 1/10th as intelligent as elephants, so their lives as 1/10th as important. In terms of count, we’re talking about maybe 10 ducks per week, vs 2 elephants for 60 years. In terms of level of suffering, the ducks are locked in a cage smaller than their body where they can not move at all and are then force fed until killed, so they easily suffer 10 times as much as the elephants.
Clearly it’s not hard math, but the crime level of foie gras seem to me to be orders of magnitude worse than it is for elephants.
This is a common tactic to shutdown opinions we don’t like. You create some artificial measure of purity that someone must meet in order to dissent. It’s b.s. Note that this tactic was used for the Shell protesters because they were protesting in plastic kayak’s. Apparently only the Amish are allowed to protest Shell and arctic drilling.
We’re better than that.
As for foie gras, It’s easy to demonize a food that most people don’t eat. It makes us feel superior when in fact we’re not really making a sacrifice. In reality, a goose at a foie gras farm lives a substantially better life than the chickens and hens do in factory farms. But making people feel guilty about their omelette or fried chicken at Blue Star just isn’t as satisfying as pointing the finger at Art of the Table diners eating foie gras.
Eric, understand the issue. The work is spread among those who care. Have taken food and animal stand for many years, probably 45 years now. There are only so many hours in a day.
Early in the elephant sanctuary / zoo discussion someone wrote a very informed ediorial to the Seattle Times about the high quality of the Zoo our elephants were being transferred to. So far as i know, no one has picked up on this. According to this editorial to the Seattle Times, there were very good reasons for choosing this zoo and for choosing it over a sanctuary situation. Does anyone remember this Seattle Times piece?
Thank you Eric for the math, I never would have imagined the equation. I haven’t eaten meat for 35 years, yet I eat dairy products. I care about the elephants I grew up and deeply regret that I was not paying attention to the sanctuary cause sooner.
I hate ducks, specifically Mallard ducks. After watching how `wild’ ducks treat each other, it’s my opinion that if we torture them, we’re arguably following a sort duck variation of the Golden Rule. (Coots are cool, though.)
Seriously, though … when I brought this up, my point was not really that anyone needs to be a vegan to establish proper credentials to raise concerns about elephants. impliedobserver is right on that point. But conversely, if you’re willing to become deeply engaged in fighting others over how they treat elephants (or dogs, for another example), but it’s convenient to support the livestock industry with your food budget? Yes, it can be a BS tactic if used to excuse something that’s clearly wrong, but there’s something to be said for some degree of ethical consistency.
As for the engineering approach to computing ethical dimensions of a problem … I don’t think so. Are ducks 1/10 as intelligent as elephants? How would we know? What does it even mean? If we could figure out what it means, is it what counts? How do you assess suffering? There are no answers for these questions.
back to “comparing” suffering and deciding who’s “more deserving” to live because of this and other measures such as intelligence. Enough said for anyone with a heart. As human beings we should all be trying to alleviate suffering for every being and the earth. That way we Are human beings which means we have hearts. There are lots of people wandering around, many in power positions, who aren’t really human beings because they don’t have hearts. You can’t quantify or qualify suffering, but only empathize and try to help. I’m pretty sure some of the conversation was just said jokingly, and humor can be really helpful. Animals aren’t objects to be used and abused. Think Starwars where animals were equals but just different….we are all God’s children. This could be such a beautiful earth.
@Eric: Comparing one form of animal abuse to another is a really ineffective way to motivate people to support the goal of ending the abuse of ducks for foie gras. I agree, foie gras should be banned everywhere. I’ve written to legislators in support of a bill to ban foie gras in WA State when there was one proposed, I’ve also written to restaurants that have it on their menus! I’ve also written to legislators and City officials about other animal cruelty issues that concern me
The elephants suffered for decades at WPZ, they’re still in quarantine at the Oklahoma City Zoo, as they are slowly trying to integrate them with the rest of their already existing herd. They may breed Chai again if she is cycling with a bull named Rex who is kept alone in a separate area of the OCZ. The reason they sent them to OCZ were many, as the zoo tried hard to pull the wool over our eyes as to why they were adamant in sending Bamboo & Chai to another zoo and not to a sanctuary. They claimed it was so they could join a multigenerational herd, but the entire reason for that is stated clearly in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation guidelines (notice the word “breeding” within the “Explanation” portion):
2.2.1.6 Multigenerational groups
Standard: When possible, multigenerational groups should be maintained.
Measurement: Multigenerational groups are maintained when possible.
Explanation: Multigenerational groups are a goal of the TAG/SSP breeding program. Much of the behavioral repertoire of elephants is learned, rather than innate. A multi-generational group allows the transfer of species-appropriate behaviors within a herd through experience and observational learning.
WPZ has failed the community by sending our elephants to Oklahoma City Zoo, instead of sending them to a sanctuary to live out the rest of their lives off display and where they can roam on acres and acres of land. To quote zoo CEO, Deborah Jensen, “the elephants will receive the same exemplary care in Oklahoma City Zoo that they received at Woodland Park Zoo”:
Here is some of her so-called “exemplary care” of the elephants:
Chai was artificially inseminated over 112x (a cruel process for elephants). She got pregnant at the Dickerson Zoo by a bull there, who was thought to be a carrier of the elephant herpes virus – but they bred her with him anyhow saying “it was a risk we were willing to take.” Chai was beaten at that zoo for 2 hrs for not complying with the Keepers commands. Dickerson Zoo (ironically named) was fined by the USDA over that act of animal cruelty. Baby Hansa died at 6 ½ of the elephant herpes virus. She suffered a horrible death in a pool of bodily fluids in the exhibit.
African elephant, Watoto, had a tusk torn from her head by a zoo staffer using a restraining device. A hole in her head had to be uncomfortably rinsed out daily to prevent infection. Watoto died last August, she was found lying down one morning in the zoo exhibit. They said they tried to raise her, but the fire department was not called to try to raise her, instead she was euthanized. Probably more cost effective to do that and end her suffering, as when an elephant lays down for too long and can’t get up their internal organs crush under their own weight.
And, now onto the subject of Woodland Park Zoo having an admission free night. The whole premise of having the admission free evening is to get parents to bring their kids back to the zoo another time to see the tiger exhibit. When on zoo ground, after paying for parking, people aren’t allowed to bring their own food inside, so they are stuck buyomg food and drinks inside, then there is the gift shop for swag, and extras like “feed the giraffes…or the (insert animal species here)” and that costs an extra 1-5 bucks. What parent would deny their cute little child this opportunity?
Animals are sentient beings and shouldn’t be used and abused for food and entertainment. I would never take children to this or any zoo, or the circus. I support many organizations and volunteer with many organizations who fight against animal cruelty. It is shameful that the zoo does not listen to the tax paying public in Seattle and King County who gives them 11 million dollars a year to manage this horribly prison.
I am not sure why this thread has diverted into questions about animal advocates being or not being vegan, or whether they are adequately protesting foie gras at local establishments. No one is paying taxes to support Art of the Table and their animal cruelty via foie gras (how would you like to be force fed by a tube until your liver is swollen beyond any tolerance?). We can simply choose not to eat there. We are ALL paying taxes supporting the mismanagement of Woodland Park Zoo, whether we go to the zoo or not.