$1 Zoo Admission to Celebrate Baby Elephant's First Birthday

You know I'm a namby tree hugger so it should come as no surprise that I'm ambivalent about zoos. I love being able to see magnificent animals with my own eyes but I hate putting animals in conditions that are artificial, particularly when these artificial environments are, at least in theory, harmful to the animals. When talking about being a flexitarian I say that I want the chicken or cow that I eventually eat to have lived a chicken's life or a cow's life, not an artificially captive and fed life of a feedlot animal. This same concept holds for animals that aren't part of the American food chain as well, including zoo animals. I want elephants to be able to live like elephants naturally want to live and they simply cannot do that in zoos. Most of my zoo ambivalence in fact stems from my love of elephants. I cannot fully explain why but I adore elephants.

This love of elephants makes me deeply torn over celebrating the Louisville Zoo's baby elephant Scotty. On the one hand he is an absolutely adorable baby elephant, what's not to love and celebrate? On the other hand Scotty will probably never be able to roam the estimated 35km a day like elephants in the wild do. The relatively sedentary nature of his life in the zoo is very different than the life he would lead in the wild. Thinking about this vexes me. Obviously it's a situation with absolutely no easy answers.

I haven't been to a zoo in a few years and I can't say if/when I'll return even though it's an easy walk to the Louisville Zoo from my house (in fact I walk past it quite frequently). What I can say though is that I'm an enthusiastic supporter of The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. I've donated money to the Sanctuary and hope to one day volunteer there. If you're unfamiliar with The Elephant Sanctuary I advise you to spend sometime exploring the website and various news articles related to it. In a nutshell The Elephant Sanctuary is a 2700 acre plot of land that the resident elephants have pretty free reign over. They roam the hills and valleys at will, play in the ponds, develop social bonds and hierarchies with other elephants as they would in the wild. The Sanctuary staff attends to the elephants' food and medical needs but other than that pretty much leaves them be. Since these elephants, many rescued from bad zoo situations or circuses, cannot be returned to the wild this is, in my opinion, the very best thing for them.

All that being said the Louisville Zoo is celebrating their resident baby elephant's birthday with a massive party on March 15, 2008. For the party zoo admission is $1 or free if you're a zoo member, and TARC will be providing free rides to the zoo from various spots around town.