‘Elephants do not belong in a zoo’ – NGO takes Joburg Zoo to court
Senior Researcher and Elephant Project Lead for the EMS Foundation Megan Carr says elephants should not be kept in captivity.
An application has been lodged at the High Court in Pretoria to release three elephants, Lammie, Mopane and Ramadiba, from the Johannesburg Zoo into a rewilding facility on Monday.
According to Animal Law Reform South Africa (ALRSA) these elephants are currently being held in conditions unsuited to their basic needs, causing them to be in distress.
EMS Foundation Megan Carr says they have been negotiating with the zoo for the past three years.
"The reason we launched the legal application is because we have tried to negotiate with the zoo since 2018 when Kinkle died, who lived in the same enclosure was a solitary female elephant. The EMS Foundation and many other organisations tried to have her released at that point. Instead the zoo went ahead against the wishes of hundreds and thousands of people who wrote to the zoo and brought two elephants from Eastern Cape. "
Carr says they hope the elephants will soon be able to live in their natural environment.
"If we were successful, it would be that the elephants would released under care and supervision under elephant experts into a more natural environment where they wouldn't be worried by human beings, where they will be able to be rehabilitated and reinterrogated into the wild at their own pace."
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