Posted on 02/14/2008 3:02:37 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
February 14, 2008
Zoo slammed for elephant's 'under-age pregancy'
Philippe Naughton
Sydney's Taronga Zoo has been reprimanded by animal rights activists for letting an Asian elephant fall pregnant even though she is only nine years old.
The zoo, famed for its views over Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House, proudly announced today that Thong Dee was five months into a 22-month pregnancy and should become the first captive elephant in Australia to give birth. It even released ultrasound images to confirm what it called an "historic event".
But Erica Martin, who heads the Asia Pacific office of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said that allowing such a young elephant to get pregnant was the equivalent of allowing your 12-year-old daughter to become pregnant”.
“It is completely irresponsible,” she said.
The ultrasound images identify a 10cm foetus with the beginnings of a spine, front and hind legs, although it is too early to determine whether it is male or female.
Thong Dee was a part of a group of eight Asian elephants imported from Thailand in November 2006.
Animal rights groups said today that there was little conservation benefit in Thong Dee’s pregnancy and that the young elephant faced health risks.
“We know that calves born in zoos have double the mortality rate in the wild, and this pregnancy will put both mother and calf at great risk,” said Bidda Jones, chief scientist of the Australian RSPCA. “Stillbirth, infanticide and rejection of calves are the main causes of infant mortality and Thong Dee’s age and lack of maternal and social experience make this pregnancy very risky."
The zoo says that its four female Asian elephants have all been assessed by reproductive specialists as eligible for breeding and points out that the early Asian Elephant pregnancy in a European zoo was five and a half years.
Mr Cooper said: “The well-being of all animals in our care is of paramount importance and our breeding programmes are carefully managed to exacting standards that ensure our specialist staff employ the latest advice and scientific research."
Asian elephants are smaller than their African cousins and are listed as endangered. They live for about 80 years in the wild and about 60 in captivity.
guilty
Does this mean that if she was in the wild, no male elephant would have knocked her up?
“It is completely irresponsible,” she said.
So is Erica advocating a pachyderm abortion?
Mohammed the papa?
Wacko's incorporated
They should Condom the prevert!!!!!
Who the baby daddy? The alpha male elephant?
Is she advocating abstinence or safe sex?
It was also a date rape. /sarc
Elephant condoms, a truly stupendous concept.
fall pregnant
I love that low class Britishism “ fall pregnant “ like it is something that just happens...out of the blue.
“I was prancing down the street and all of a sudden I found that I fell pregnant.”
Twenty years ago, this would have been satire.
Also, according to an animal facts page on Asian elephants, they live on average 60 years in the wild and 80 in captivity. The article has the numbers mixed up. I wonder if that was a mistake or a deliberate ploy by the leftie paper to make zoos look bad.
Well that was the age decided by Mother Nature . Isn't demanding elephants following cultural norms set by human society a little specieist?
Ya can’t make this s-it up. Can ya, huh???
Are you calling me stupen????
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