Vegetarian, Vegan and Animal Rights

red dog 1

(32,346 posts) Wed Dec 10, 2025, 07:21 PM Dec 10

Forgotten Elephant Watoto, A Life Behind Bars

In Defense of Animals
November 21, 2025

She was born in the wilds of Kenya, free to roam and play in a wonderland of enticing sights, sounds, and smells.
Then, at just two years old, Watoto was torn from her family and home and transported across the world to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, Washington.

Instead of a vast savannah, she was confined to a 1-acre enclosure, devoid of any trees, grass, or space to roam.
There she would spend the next 43 years pacing endlessly.

[snip]

On August 14, 2014, Watoto fell and was unable to get up.
The next morning, the keepers found her collapsed.
The staff tried in vain to lift her with straps and heavy machinery, but it was too late.
The decision was made to end her life.

Read the complete story/Watch video:
https://idausa.org/campaign/elephants/latest-news/watch-forgotten-elephant-watoto-a-life-behind-bars/

4 replies

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Forgotten Elephant Watoto, A Life Behind Bars (Original Post) red dog 1 Dec 10 OP

99% of zoos are horrible biophile Dec 10 #1

I agree. red dog 1 Dec 10 #2

Yes! So few actual humane zoos with natural environments biophile Dec 11 #3

This was a tragedy oldtime dfl_er Dec 14 #4

biophile

(1,164 posts)

1. 99% of zoos are horrible

Reply to red dog 1 (Original post)

Wed Dec 10, 2025, 07:50 PM

Dec 10

But captivity is sometimes now the only way a species will survive. There are just too many humans and we are destroying the planet, including most habitats for other living things.

red dog 1

(32,346 posts)

2. I agree.

Reply to biophile (Reply #1)

Wed Dec 10, 2025, 08:16 PM

Dec 10

But "captivity" in zoos need not be torture for the animals.
Keeping an elephant (who are social animals) like poor Watoto "in solitary confinement in a cell barely big enough to turn around in for up to 18 hours a day" is torture!

biophile

(1,164 posts)

3. Yes! So few actual humane zoos with natural environments

Reply to red dog 1 (Reply #2)

Thu Dec 11, 2025, 08:53 AM

Dec 11

oldtime dfl_er

(7,131 posts)

4. This was a tragedy

Reply to red dog 1 (Original post)

Sun Dec 14, 2025, 01:20 AM

Dec 14

And one of the reasons that the Woodland Park Zoo no longer houses elephants.

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