Why were elephants removed from Toronto Zoo?

In October 2011, after a spate of elephant deaths and harsh criticism from a U.S.-based animal-rights group, city council voted 31 to 4 to send the Toronto Zoo's three remaining African elephants — Thika, Toka and Iringa — to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif.



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The zoo lost its status in 2012 after Toronto City Hall decided to move three African elephants to a Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California against the recommendation of the zoo staff and management who wanted the animals to go to an accredited facility.

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Elephants held at the Monterey Zoo have died under questionable circumstances, including one who was euthanized after being unable to stand due to a painful joint condition and another whose death was hidden from the public but whose necropsy revealed that she had ingested a large amount of sand that blocked and ...

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Broadly, some elephant experts say urban zoos simply don't have the space that African elephants, who roam extensive distances in the wild to forage for hundreds of pounds of vegetation each day, need for a normal life.

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Police say six exotic animals were taken from the zoo on Talbot Trail in Morpeth, Ont., on three separate occasions between October and November 2021. The missing animals are a squirrel monkey, lemur, red eclectus parrot, a lime green eclectus parrot and two umbrella cockatoos.

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There are currently 51 elephants in captivity across 11 UK zoos. Campaigners are calling for keeping elephants in captivity to be banned in the UK.

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There are at present roughly 305 elephants at 62 A.Z.A.-accredited zoos in the United States. How many are in nonaccredited facilities, circuses and roadside zoos is less clear; PETA has estimated the number at around 70.

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Fortunately, the two elephants in the Bronx Zoo are still alive, but Happy and Patty have been deprived of everything that makes life worth living for members of their species. Along with my colleagues at the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), I am Happy's lawyer.

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It wasn't natural for Winky and Wanda to endure the frigid Michigan winters at the zoo. Despite the zoo's best efforts, both elephants suffered from arthritis. They needed freedom. In 2005, after over a decade of living at the zoo, The Detroit Zoo let Winky and Wanda go.

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After 25 years at Lion Country Safari, the peaceful pachyderms are moving to other elephant-friendly places in the United States.

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Staff at the Toronto Zoo are “emotionally processing” the death of Mila, a 2-year-old Amur tiger born at the facility, who died last week in a “freak accident” involving anesthesia at its new home at a U.S. zoo.

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Celebrate North America's oldest Sumatran Orangutan and the oldest resident at the Zoo! Join us in celebrating her 56th Birthday with a birthday cake this Saturday and some special enrichment fit for a queen. Puppe has been at the Toronto Zoo since opening in 1974 and has had five children and five grandchildren.

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