Battle to halt importation of Thai elephants

Animal welfare groups squared off against two Australian zoos today as arguments began in a legal battle to halt the importation of eight Asian elephants from Thailand.

In July, the federal government approved an application from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo and the Melbourne Zoo in southern Victoria state to import the endangered pachyderms to stock a captive breeding program that one animal welfare group has slammed as “commercial enterprise dressed up as conservation”.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Humane Society International, and the Australian branch of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, filed an appeal against the government’s decision, saying that moving the animals to zoos would be detrimental to their well-being and that the proposed breeding programme will do nothing to enhance conservation of the species.