GEICO (Government Employees Insurance Company), universally known for its lovable animated gecko mascot, has entered into a partnership with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). Under the guise of promoting wildlife conservation, the partnership features a traveling gecko exhibit and in-person and television appearances by the "gecko" at zoos and aquariums across the U.S.
What GEICO apparently doesn't know is that zoos and aquariums continue to capture healthy wild animals from their natural habitats, thereby directly contravening and undermining the conservation efforts that they claim are their mission.
For example, in 2003, AZA zoos paid for and otherwise supported the removal of 11 wild elephants from Swaziland, Africa. The zoo industry claimed that it imported the elephants because the park wanted to kill them, but the truth is that at least three other free-roaming areas in Africa had agreed to accept the elephants. Instead, the elephants were captured and shipped to U.S. zoos. On February 4, 2008, a 10-week-old calf born to Lungile, one of the Swaziland elephants imprisoned at the San Diego Wild Animal Park, was euthanized after she developed secondary complications from malnourishment as well as a staph infection. Lungile is reportedly still suffering from complications related to the pregnancy and birth.
In 2006, six AZA-accredited zoos—the San Diego Zoo, Arizona's Wildlife World Zoo, the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, the Houston Zoo, the San Antonio Zoo, and the Denver Zoo—collectively spent almost half a million dollars to bring 33 monkeys who had been illegally trafficked by poachers to the U.S. instead of working with wildlife rehabilitators in Africa in an effort to return the recently captured primates to their natural habitat.
Ask GEICO to end its partnership with the AZA until the organization implements a policy that prohibits member zoos and aquariums from capturing healthy wild animals from their natural habitats.
