Importing African Elephants Allowed

SAN DIEGO -- The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday that the San Diego Wild Animal Park can import seven elephants from Swaziland, a decision that angered animal rights organizations fighting to keep the pachyderms in Africa.

The Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the elephants -- the first scheduled to be imported legally from Africa to a North American zoo in 15 years -- would be killed if they were not removed from the Swaziland game reserves.

“This is really the only viable option for these animals, given the overpopulation on the game reserves in Swaziland,” said Chris Tollefson, spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service. Tollefson added that the elephants are destroying habitat in Swaziland, a small landlocked nation between South Africa and Mozambique.

The wildlife agency plans to issue the permits Friday; the elephants could be imported as soon as next month.

Animal rights groups, however, say they will file suit to stop the importation. They argue that the elephants should be left in the wild because zoos cannot provide adequate homes for them.

The groups believe that the Wild Animal Park, near Escondido, wants to import the animals for commercial purposes. The activists say they have found homes for the elephants in Africa.

“We think this sets a bad precedent for the protection of African elephants,” said Suzanne Roy of In Defense of Animals. “This could open the floodgates for zoos from all over North America to try and buy elephants from private reserves.”

In addition to the seven elephants slated to be imported to San Diego, four elephants are designated for the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla.

The animal rights organizations, including Born Free USA and the Elephant Alliance, originally sued the Fish and Wildlife Service in April, alleging that the zoos had provided false information on their permit applications.

The service responded by requesting more information from the zoos about where the animals came from and how they were selected.

The zoos submitted revised permit applications, and the organizations withdrew their lawsuit.

The wildlife agency, in deciding to issue the permits, found that the elephants would not be used primarily for commercial purposes, that the Wild Animal Park was equipped to house and care for the animals, and that their importation would not harm Africa’s elephant population.

The zoos have pledged $132,000 for all 11 elephants, money that officials said would be used to expand the protected areas and buy needed equipment in Swaziland.

The animals had been living at the Hlane Royal National Park and Mkhaya Game Reserve and are now in a temporary holding pen.

The zoos say the importation is necessary for the future of the captive elephant population, which could disappear in two to three decades unless more elephants are imported and bred. Zoos have had difficulty breeding elephants and now many of the animals in zoos around the country are becoming too old to breed.

“If we wish to have our children and grandchildren see elephants in North America, we need to make sure that we have young, viable animals that are reproductively sound,” said Randy Rieches, curator of mammals at the Wild Animal Park.

He said the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the zoo and the park, plans to use the animals for breeding, education and fund-raising for conservation programs.