1. How many elephants does the Oakland Zoo have and how old are they?

Things have changed quite a bit since the inception of this website. The Oakland Zoo, up until March 26, 2023, had three African elephants, two female and one male—Donna and Lisa, both in their forties and one male, Osh, twenty nine years old. On March 26, 2023 Lisa was euthanized due to longstanding health issues that became insurmountable. You can read a bit more about them at the Oakland Zoo’s elephant page. The Zoo sent Donna to sanctuary in September 2023. On July 9th, the Oakland Zoo announced that Osh, their last elephant, will be leaving in the fall of 2024 at which point the zoo will no longer have any elephants.

2. Is the Oakland Zoo mistreating its elephants?

The Oakland Zoo is considered one of the best in the country as far as zoos are concerned and relative to the American Zoo Association standards. This is not about blatant or intentional abuse. This is about no zoo—even the best—being appropriate. This is about helping the two remaining elephants but also helping all elephants in zoos throughout the country. If the Oakland Zoo makes a stand and says no to elephants in zoos this will send a message to the rest of the zoos in the United States as well.

Oakland has the opportunity to become a leader instead of being best at making a difficult situation better.

3. What do the experts say?

On September 6, 2019, top international biologists and planners gathered in South Africa to condemn the capture and confinement of elephants in captivity. Experts from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Great Britain, the Netherlands, the United States and South Africa called for an end to captivity of elephants—including all zoos. Experts like Joyce Poole called for an end to captivity, stating that even in the best of facilities it constitutes cruelty.

Others like attorney Jim Karani of WildlifeDirect in Kenya believes that the question is not whether an animal can reason or talk, but can they suffer. “Our confinement of elephants shows they can and do.”

A summary of these expert opinions as well as links to the entire conference that was posted to youtube can be found here.

4. Isn’t or wasn’t the Oakland Zoo planning for an elephant sanctuary?

Those plans fell through in 2017. A Silicon Valley billionaire named Roger McNamee partnered with the Oakland Zoo to staff and manage a 5000 acre preserve in Tehama County called Tembo (the website no longer works and there is only an outdated Facebook page) but plans suddenly changed. Conflicting reports exist. One article (no longer available online) refers to a statement on the the Tembo website that said they couldn’t move forward with permitting while the other states that the county was caught off guard as they were moving forward. In either case, Roger McNamee and his wife Anne still own the 5000 acres under a non profit entity called Tembo Preserve with assets of approximately $18 million reported in 2017.

When asked in email about the failed Tembo plans Colleen Kinzley, Director at the Oakland Zoo stated, “Our goal with Tembo Preserve was not only to be able to provide a larger natural habitats that would not require the same kind of intensive care but to be able to have larger numbers of elephants so that they could more fully express their social behavior. We continue to look for opportunities for funding and the appropriate land that would allow for a project of that scale.” (9/13/2019)

5. What’s the argument for keeping elephants in Zoos?

Rescue. Preservation. Education. These three things basically. But rescue at this point can mean a “staged rescue” as highlighted in a New York Times article titled “Zoos Called it a ‘Rescue’But are Elephants Really Any Better Off?” Zoos continue to to acquire elephants under the auspices of rescue, despite mounting evidence that elephants find captivity torturous. Preservation of the species, yes. But at what cost. A life in captivity?

As Audrey Delsink of the Humane Society International-Africa states, “If we ‘save’ elephants from extinction by confining them, they will be elephants in body only but psychologically extinct.”

Education has been disproven. With technology the public can be knowledgeable and empathetic through access to video that shows them elephants in the wild or in sanctuaries. Keith Lindsay of the Amboseli Elephant Research Project believes that zoos have “next to nothing to offer” with regard to education. According to him, “It is much better to watch films of real elephants behaving naturally—walking, feeding, playing, mating, fighting—in truly natural social groups of up to hundreds of animals ranging widely across ecosystems than to see miserable captive elephants standing around in a bare enclosure, no matter how ‘naturalistic’ the landscaping design may be.”

We can and we must find ways to educate people. And to preserve elephants other than exploiting them.

6. Can’t the Zoo just expand further into Knowland Park?

Knowland Park, while managed by the Zoo, is a public park owned by the City of Oakland. There was an enormous public outcry over the Zoo expanding into 77 acres to build a 56 acre development which they ultimately went on to do. We do not wish for more public land to be used by the Zoo which is a private enterprise. We ask that the Oakland Elephants either be transferred to sanctuary or that if they must spend the rest of their lives in the Oakland Zoo that they be the last elephants that ever have to live here again.

7. What do we do with the existing space if the elephants go away?

“An even more interesting angle taken by Detroit Zoo has been to create innovative exhibits that replace animals with technology, such as the three-dimensional animal documentary experience and the virtual safari. If zoos are mainly for children (and, as the paying addendum, the parents), these interactive exhibits have the potential to be more fun and more educational than traditional zoo animal exhibits without the collateral damage of real animal lives. Zoos could remain open to the public, could play up the theme park narrative even more aggressively than they already do, and could even more creatively make use of the entertainment technologies available. In the meantime, the live animals could be quietly removed and allowed to live out their natural lives in peace and privacy in more sanctuary-like settings. Zoos with live animals could become a thing of the past.” Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff, “A Postzoo Future: Why Welfare Fails Animals In Zoos.

8. Where can Oakland’s elephants go?

The most obvious choice at this juncture, would be to send Oakland’s last elephant, Osh, to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee along with Donna. They currently have both African and Asian elephants. This is important as the different species cannot cohabitate so they have separate areas for each. As well, males cannot live with females. Osh, an African elephant could potentially also go to sanctuary and live alongside Artie, the sanctuary’s sole male African elephant

As mentioned, Oakland happens to be only one hundred twenty miles from one of the best and largest elephant sanctuaries in North America. This sanctuary is called PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society.) PAWS is currently home to six African and three Asian elephants. PAWS is also the only accredited elephant sanctuary that could presently take Osh, a male.

There are other ideas to be explored as well…

A) There remains five thousand acres in Tehama county still owned by billionaire Roger McNamee who is an elephant advocate. Perhaps it’s time to move those stalled plans forward.

B) Also there have been talks of combining all zoo efforts in California to create on large sanctuary. This would combine Oakland, Los Angeles and San Diego’s efforts. Much like a preserve in Africa, a more natural habitat could be created for former zoo elephants to live out the rest of their lives.

C) Write to us if you have other thoughts!

9. How much does all this cost and how do we know PAWS and/or The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee will take these elephants?

These are questions that need to be explored by and with the Oakland Zoo. The issue now is to begin the conversation.

10. What can I do now to make some progress on this issue?

Let your voice be heard—by the Zoo, by the city of Oakland. Ask that we no longer keep elephants captive in Oakland, in California and in the United States. Ask that we make future plans to transfer Donna and Osh to sanctuary. Contact information for all key individuals can be found here.