Administration Asked to Bar Direct Contact With Elephants in Light of Association of Zoos and Aquariums' New Policy
For
Immediate Release:
October
17, 2011
Contact:
David
Perle 202-483-7382
Washington -- In light of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' (AZA) new mandate that all AZA-accredited institutions must switch to a method of elephant management that minimizes direct contact between humans and elephants as soon as possible and no later than September 2014, PETA is renewing its call for the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to prohibit all direct physical contact between employees and elephants—known as "free contact"—at circuses, exhibits, and any other businesses that still use elephants and replace it with the "protected contact" system, which places a barrier between employees and elephants. In a letter sent today to OSHA Assistant Secretary of Labor David Michaels, PETA notes that because OSHA's purpose is to prevent the occurrence of workplace accidents, it has a duty to follow the AZA's example, as the new AZA policy was developed precisely to "maximize the safety of elephant care staff."
"Elephants and workers at AZA-accredited institutions will now be protected from violence and injury, but numerous zoos, circuses, and fairs that aren't accredited are still putting elephants and workers in danger," says PETA counsel and Director of Captive Animal Law Enforcement Delcianna Winders. "OSHA has a responsibility to step in and make sure that no worker is injured or killed by a frustrated, abused elephant."
Just last year, OSHA acknowledged that "[d]irect or free contact with dangerous animals … is a recognized hazard that is likely to cause death or serious physical harm to employees and others." Over the past 20 years, human interactions with captive elephants in the U.S. have resulted in 15 human deaths and more than 135 reported injuries—many of these deaths and injuries resulted from interactions in which a keeper beat an elephant who then retaliated. No deaths and only one injury (the result of disregarded protocol) have occurred at facilities that use protected contact.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.