Zoo Hasn’t Met U.S. Requirements to Give Elephants Shelter From Sun

The San Diego Zoo has been ordered repeatedly since 1986 to provide shelter from the sun for its elephants but has not done so, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture records.

The zoo was first told to correct the “deficiency” by June 1, 1987, and, when it failed to do so, was given new deadlines of Aug. 1, 1987, and then April 27, 1988, both of which passed without any shelter being constructed, according to Dario Cappucci of the USDA’s Sacramento office.

The USDA received a letter from the zoo last April 18 requesting more time, Cappucci said. “They did not pin themselves down with a further deadline date, so we called them and said, ‘Look, it’s going to be summer soon, guys,’ ” Cappucci said.

Carmi Penny, the zoo’s curator of mammals, said the zoo has not met the deadlines because a shade structure that was proposed last year did not meet city code requirements. Penny said several trees will be moved into the elephant enclosure within about a month to provide shade.

The tree plan has been approved by Dr. James Roswurm, the veterinarian in charge of the USDA office in Sacramento. The USDA has agreed to extend the deadline again to mid-summer to give zoo officials time to fulfill the promise to transplant trees into the enclosure, Cappucci said. The USDA inspects and licenses the zoo as well as all other facilities that exhibit animals.

There are now six elephants in the area, which housed seven until last Feb. 16, when an 18-year-old elephant called Dunda was transferred from the zoo to the Wild Animal Park. Elephant keepers at the zoo say they have requested shade for years to protect the elephants from heat stroke and sunburn, to which the animals are susceptible. In the wild, the animals are able to find shelter under trees, the keepers say.

On June 30, 1987, after the first shade deadline had passed, the USDA gave the zoo written instructions saying that shade was to be provided and that “elephants are not to be allowed to sunburn,” according to department records.

Steve Friedlund, the zoo’s senior elephant trainer, said Thursday that, as a stopgap measure on hot days, the elephants are allowed to enter the elephant barn, but that two of the six elephants are reluctant to do so because they think they will be locked up.

Using the barn is unacceptable, Friedlund said, because the elephants must be taken off exhibit. and the keepers are prevented from cleaning the building and providing food and water for the evening. Friedlund said he has requested shade since he began working at the exhibit four years ago and that other keepers made similar requests before he arrived.

“Asian elephants can get sunstroke,” Friedlund said. “They become listless and sick from the heat. I’ve seen them start getting very weak.”

Records also show that the zoo corrected a serious deficiency last year after the USDA found elephants suffering from “foot-scald.”

In the October, 1986, report that first noted the shade problem, USDA veterinarian Frank Enders wrote that “foot-scald of elephants is an ongoing condition/problem due to standing overnight on floor retaining urine and organic debris.”

“Feeding is done on floor, ‘clean’ areas are used, but very rotten holes/cores exist in this wood peg floor directly under the feeding area,” he wrote.

Enders also noted that the wood floor was “badly deteriorated” and that it “allows pools of urine to collect.” The pools allowed severe ammonia odors to develop until the elephants were let out each morning, Enders wrote.

A follow-up report showed that the zoo installed a concrete floor and that “foot-scald” is no longer a problem.