Toronto Zoo says elephant transfer to U.S. sanctuary at an “impasse”
Posted May 1, 2012 6:17 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Lawyers for an elephant sanctuary in California and the Toronto Council are expected to meet this week with the CEO of the Toronto Zoo to look at medical records of elephants at the sanctuary and the three in Toronto.
The zoo claims it has reached an impasse over the planned move of its elephants to California claiming the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) facility has failed to provide medical records for its own elephants, despite repeated requests.
However, Councillor Michelle Berardinetti, who has led the effort to relocate the animals, told 680News PAWS has provided the information.
She accuses zoo management of stalling and says doing so is putting the care of other animals at the zoo, such as the giraffes, at risk.
Barardinetti says the plan is to expand the giraffes’ enclosure to include the elephants’ enclosure once the pachyderms move out. She says the current giraffe enclosure is substandard.
Toronto city council voted in late October to send the three elephants to the U.S. facility after groups voiced concern about the animals’ welfare.
Animal activist Bob Barker had offered to fund a $880,000 plane flight but has recently threatened to back off from his commitment.
Earlier this month, the zoo was denied accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums for the first time in 30 years, partly due to the decision to move Iringa, Toka and Thika to the PAWS sanctuary.
Berardinetti says a meeting is in the works and will likely happen Thursday.
