Elephant Death at Zoo

The injury and death of Maya reveals again that our zoo and Wild Animal Park professionals simply do not have the numbers, the time, the facilities and the skills to care for elephants safely.

As much as we all may love seeing these magnificent animals, isn’t it time to admit that they would be better off if we did not try to keep them under these conditions? What is the point of having elephants on display if they must be chained for most of their lives and beaten into submission by “trainers”? One letter to the editor recently said it looked like the Zoological Society’s motto on elephants was “breed them, beat them and bury them.”

I would have to agree that the elephant care situation is starting to be a real embarrassment to San Diego. It is sad to realize that their wild environment is disappearing, and that one day there will be no more elephants, but it is no solution to pen them up in unsafe conditions just for us to look at.

If mankind has chosen to eliminate the elephants in favor of development and ivory, perhaps we must let them go and bear the collective burden of that loss. A zoo environment is not the answer.

ANNA HANKINS, San Diego