Elephant in Pittsburgh Zoo enclosure Credit: Photo: courtesy of In Defense of Animals

Controversy surrounding elephants at the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium has been ongoing for several years, and it doesn’t appear to be fading. Last week, the national animal-rights group In Defense of Animals (IDA) ranked the Pittsburgh Zoo the worst zoo in the country for elephants on its annual list of the 10 worst zoos for elephants.

“Pittsburgh Zoo and its International Conservation Center (ICC) harm elephants in an unbroken pattern of negligence that defies even mainstream zoo norms,” reads an IDA report published on Jan. 23. “In Defense of Animals’ investigations have exposed this Zoo’s substandard elephant barn and found new information about its separation of three elephants who have been together for around a quarter of a century. Pittsburgh Zoo easily earned its place as the #1 worst zoo on this year’s list of the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants in North America.”

Other zoos on the list include Zoo Miami in Florida and the Bronx Zoo in New York. IDA has been running campaigns against elephants in zoos for several years. 

IDA says in December 2019, it found elephants pacing in tiny enclosures for hours, dogs present in close proximity to the elephants (which the U.S. Department of Agriculture notes produces stress on elephants), and that elephants in the Pittsburgh Zoo could be observed “pressing their trunks to a series of small holes in the wall that were the only visible water source in that confined area.”

A request for comment from the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium was not returned. This is Pittsburgh Zoo’s fourth time on IDA’s top 10 list of worst zoos for elephants. Pittsburgh banned wild and exotic animal performances in circuses in 2017.

Additionally, IDA cited Pittsburgh Zoo’s use of concrete flooring for the elephants’ winter enclosure. Concrete is known to cause foot and leg health issues for elephants. The IDA also criticized the Pittsburgh Zoo for transferring female African elephant Thandi to a zoo in Canada for breeding purposes, which resulted in the separation from her longtime companions, Seeni and Sukiri.

“Separating Thandi, Seeni, and Sukiri makes it abundantly clear that Pittsburgh Zoo does not recognize or respect herd bonds among its elephants, despite what it claims on its website,” reads the IDA report. “Nor does it respect elephants’ physical and mental wellbeing, as evidenced by the conditions documented at their indoor enclosures.”

The Pittsburgh Zoo has several conservation programs listed on its website, including manatee rescue and rehabilitation, coral reef conservation, an African primate protection program, and supporting conservation efforts of the giant armadillo, an integral species in Brazil’s wetlands.

The zoo also touts its International Conservation Center in Somerset County, which it says is “North America’s premier facility for African elephant conservation, education, training, breeding, and research.” The 724-acre facility is home to five elephants, including three rescues from Botswana.

In 2015, Pittsburgh Zoo dropped its accreditation with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums over disagreements about how the zoo handled elephants. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported in 2017 that losing accreditation resulted in the Pittsburgh Zoo being kicked out of certain conservation programs.

This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2020.

3 replies on “National animal rights group ranks Pittsburgh Zoo as worst for elephants in US”

  1. Aaaand this article is clearly written with a biased opinion rather than with factual information. Shame on City Paper for running such an accusatory and inflammatory article. They should be supporting their own city’s zoo and if they spent any real investigative reporting on this article they would find that the Pgh zoo is run by the most caring, compassionate animal loving people in the city. These aren’t bad people out to hurt elephants. Imagine spending your life’s work investing in the preservation of a species and every day physically caring for these animals to only have some extremist group criticize you from an outsider view and say that you are mistreating the animals. And then your hunting-for-hot-headlines-local paper run with it to the people of the very city that they are supposed to inform not insight gossip. Did the reporter happen to visit the zoo themselves to see if the animals are really drinking through tiny holes in the walls or drive out to Somerset to see if the preservation land that they negatively use the word “taut” for yo imply that the zoo is lying about it being a premiere facility..to see if in fact it is? Nah…because the headline then might not have been so hot and eye catching for readers. BOOOOOO TO THE CITY PAPER FOR PUBLISHING INFLAMMATORY AND ONE SIDED STORIES TO GAIN READERSHIP!!! I’ll know now not to trust your information sources.

  2. So (to the above comment), what counterpoints to the facts mentioned in this article do you have?? You haven’t mentioned a thing.

    I won’t be supporting this organization in any way.

  3. The mistreatment of elephants by the Pittsburgh Zoo is more likely the result of limited or improperly managed budgets than the intent of caregivers. Our zoo should only house animals that can no longer live in the wild and that the zoo can treat at the highest level of care.

    Hundreds of millions people visit zoos and aquariums every year. If these visits inspired us to invest in the preservation of wild habitats (as is claimed), we would not be losing species at more than 250 times the natural rate.

    Yes, it is wonderful and thrilling to see these animals up close, but no animal should suffer as a result.

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