Off Hook With D.A. : Elephant Beaters Won’t Be Charged

The San Diego city attorney said Thursday that no one will be prosecuted for the beating of Dunda the elephant because San Diego Wild Animal Park keepers were using an accepted training technique and because evidence about the incident is “inconclusive.”

Announcing the results of a six-week investigation, City Atty. John W. Witt said the “discipline” administered to Dunda “involved chaining her four feet, hauling her down to her knees and repeatedly smacking her on the top of the head, where the skull is thick, with ax handles and the wooden end of elephant hooks,” baton-like instruments with metal hooks at one end.

“All our evidence indicates that discipline of Dunda, although seeming harsh to the uninitiated, is a technique accepted in the animal-training profession,” Witt said. “Our evidence is, at best, inconclusive as to the severity of Dunda’s injuries and as to her temperament.”

A criminal case involving animal-abuse charges would be “riddled with reasonable doubt,” making it improper to charge anyone with a crime stemming from the incident, Witt said.

The decision drew immediate criticism from State Sen. Dan McCorquodale, chairman of the Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee, who said he was “disappointed that they didn’t take the responsibility to take the investigation a little more seriously than they did.”

McCorquodale said his committee has received complaints from about half a dozen people who said they had information about the incident but were rebuffed or ignored by the San Diego Humane Society, which conducted the investigation for the city attorney.

McCorquodale said he received approval by the Senate Rules Committee Thursday to hold a public hearing on the issue in San Diego on July 29 and has been granted subpoena power.

The elephant keepers at the San Diego Zoo, whose complaints brought the controversy to light, said Thursday they were angered by the results of the inquiry.

“If people are willing to accept this whole episode as being OK, then they need to see exactly what it is they are defending,” said Lisa Landres, an elephant keeper at the zoo. “If people could see the brutality involved, it would make them vomit. They would never tolerate it. No matter what this elephant did, there is no justification for what was done to her.”

The controversy began last February when Dunda, an 18-year-old African elephant who lived most of her life at the San Diego Zoo, was transferred to the San Diego Wild Animal Park, near Escondido. The zoo and the park are operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego.

Keepers at the zoo say that Dunda, always a nervous animal, was transferred without proper preparation, including time before the move to adjust to her crate and meet her new keepers while still on familiar turf.

Extremely Frightened

Once at the Wild Animal Park, Dunda, by then extremely frightened, was brutally beaten over several days, they say. Ragged pieces of hide are still visible on Dunda’s head.

Alan Roocroft, the supervisor in charge of elephants at the Wild Animal Park, said Thursday the Dunda incident had been blown out of proportion and that elephants at the park have always received “a high standard of care.” Roocroft and four others participated in the disciplinary sessions.

Betty Jo Williams, president of the Zoological Society, said the park keepers were “vindicated” by the decision. “We are pleased that the professional standards of care we have worked so hard to bring to our elephant herd have been recognized,” Williams said.

The city attorney’s decision shows that “our confidence in the professionalism of the Wild Animal Park’s elephant trainers is well-placed,” she said “and I commend them for their steadfast and loyal behavior in the face of criticism and misunderstanding.”

The Humane Society’s review of the incident showed that it was “far less serious than at first thought and arose from a legitimate need to discipline and train a dangerous, 4-ton elephant,” Witt said at a press conference in the City Administration Building.

The chaining and beating technique is used by “reputable animal facilities around the country to establish dominance over the animal,” Witt said.

That conclusion was based on interviews with two elephant keepers at the Los Angeles Zoo and a keeper at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, according to Larry Boersma, a spokesman for the Humane Society. He declined to name the keepers. One of the Los Angeles keepers who viewed photographs of Dunda said he detected scraping injuries that could have been cause by Dunda knocking her head into cage bars, according to the investigation results.

Of five veterinarians questioned by the Humane Society, two said the discipline was excessive, two said it was not and one had no opinion, Boersma said.

McCorquodale said Thursday that, based on his staff’s research, he disagrees with the Humane Society’s assessment. “We talked to a lot of zoos around the country, and we find almost nobody willing to admit that they beat their elephants to discipline them,” he said. “Average people won’t tolerate an elephant being tied by four legs, pulled to the ground and beaten.”

As a result of the incident, tougher laws regarding oversight of zoos may be sought, he said. Such legislation might include bills giving greater policy responsibility to directors and trustees of zoos, McCorquodale said.

“It’s a tremendous black eye for the zoo and the wildlife compound,” he said. “It’s clear that they need to develop policies.”

Witt acknowledged that the discipline administered to Dunda was “unpleasant for trainer and elephant alike” and said some keepers involved “reported feelings of nausea and sleeplessness as a result of their participation.”

He added that the injuries inflicted on her head during several sessions over two days were not serious or life-threatening. The one session described in a statement distributed by the city attorney’s office lasted about 15 minutes.

The injuries appeared more serious that they are “because minimal blood flow to the area both enhances the appearance of trauma and inhibits healing,” Witt said.

In a separate statement, Fred J. Lee, executive director of the Humane Society, said the disciplinary measures were “harsh,” but not prosecutable. Lee recommended that the Zoological Society develop new policies and procedures to ensure against abuse.

The Humane Society also recommended that a veterinarian or a curator be involved in decisions about disciplinary action and be present if discipline is administered.

“Today, Dunda is in no danger of being given any special disciplinary action,” the Humane Society said in the statement. “She is tractable so she can be given the care and attention necessary for her long-term well-being.”

Intense Scrutiny

Williams, the Zoological Society president, said at a press conference at the Wild Animal Park that the park keepers had been under “intense and exaggerated scrutiny.” Asked whether elephant-handling procedures would be changed as a result of the Dunda incident, she said, “Our protocols for all of our animals have been and are continually under review.”

Echoing the city attorney’s report, Williams said Dunda is better off at the Wild Animal Park because she had not gotten along with other elephants at the zoo. “You have a condition here where she had been thrown into the moat by her fellow elephants at the zoo, had her jaw broken,” Williams said. “She now has two friends in that herd (at the park).”

Douglas Myers, executive director of the Zoological Society, has said the city attorney’s report would be the definitive answer about who was right in the Dunda controversy. At the press conference with Williams Thursday, he said he rejects the complaints of the zoo keepers who first brought the situation to light. He said he also rejects the opinions of the veterinarians who said the discipline went too far.

Myers said he intends to hold a meeting at which all elephant keepers from both the park and the zoo will discuss the elephant situation.

The report Thursday seemed to do little to end the controversy. Landres, one of Dunda’s former keepers, said Thursday that many details of the incident, as well as Dunda’s history, were incorrectly portrayed in the city attorney’s version.

Landres said she was particularly annoyed by the description of Dunda as a problem elephant. “She was not a discipline problem,” Landres said. Dunda was shoved in the moat several years ago by an elephant called Mia, who was “on the rampage,” Landres said. “She was pushing every single elephant in the moat. Every elephant had a turn in that moat. It was not in any way directed at Dunda.”

Steve Friedlund, who works with Landres at the zoo, said, “All I can say is, I know different.” Of the park keepers involved in the incident, he said, “They’re damn right they couldn’t sleep at night because they thought they almost killed her.”

Friedlund said he hopes he can keep working at the zoo. “I never intended for this to be some kind of criminal prosecution,” he said “We still haven’t solved the problem. I think we should set some guidelines for how far we can go with discipline.”

Myers said Thursday that none of the elephant handlers at the zoo or the park would be disciplined as a result of the incident or its aftermath.