SEARCH

SUBSCRIBE TO PETA E-NEWS

HOMEACTION CENTERBLOGTVLIFESTYLEFORUMSKIDSDONATEMEDIASHOPABOUT

Action Center

• Learn
  • Animals Used for Clothing
  • Animals Used for Testing
  • Animals Used for Food
  • Animals Used for Entertainment
  • Animal Exploitation
  • Education
• Speak
  • Action Alerts
  • Ask for Help
  • Spread the Word
  • Report Cruelty to Animals
  • Letter-Writing Guide
  • Ask Megan
  • Contact Your Legislator
  • Submit an Idea
• Act
  • Monthly Activism Idea
  • Monthly Leafleting Alert
  • Easy Outreach Ideas
  • Request Literature
  • Youth Outreach
• Join
• Give
• Buy
• Applaud
• Share
• Listen

Campaign Unavailable

We're sorry, this alert is no longer available. If you would like to learn more about ways you can take action, please visit PETA's Online Community.

The short explanation of this alert was:

PETA has asked the Oregon Zoo to make a New Year's resolution to abandon its bullhooks and circus-style training methods for elephants and switch to a safer, more humane method of elephant handling called "protected contact." With protected contact, keepers do not use any form of corporal punishment, and a safety barrier always separates the elephants from their keepers.

A bullhook is a long, heavy rod with a steel point and a hook at one end. Keepers jab bullhooks into the most sensitive parts of an elephant's body, such as behind the ears, inside the ear or mouth, in and around the anus, and in tender spots under the chin and around the feet.

In April 2000, a 5-year-old elephant named Rose-Tu was severely beaten by a keeper with a bullhook and sustained more than 176 puncture wounds all over her body. The U.S. Department of Agriculture formally charged and fined the Oregon Zoo for the incident, but elephants at the Oregon Zoo continued to suffer from bullhook wounds even following these charges. Protected contact eliminates the beatings, bullhooks, and chains that are routinely used on elephants when they are handled using outdated circus-style training methods.

Please contact the Oregon Zoo to express your concern about the cruel use of bullhooks to train and manage elephants and demand that it switch immediately to the protected-contact method.

If you would like to view details on this alert, please visit here.