A day after one of their colleagues was seriously injured while tending to an elephant, keepers at Lincoln Park Zoo wondered if anything could have been done differently to prevent the accident.
The experienced zoo keeper had suffered multiple injuries Wednesday when a 1,500-pound Asian elephant knelt on her chest.
Dennis Meritt, the zoo’s director of collections, said the accident was a wake-up call for his staff.
“We’ve done it this way for so many years-maybe we need to refocus our attention,” said Meritt, who also serves as president of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association.
And they’re not alone: Animal keepers nationwide are trying to balance the needs of their elephants with the safety of the people who care for them.
A special task force recently convened in Arizona to discuss elephant management issues, prompted in part by rising insurance liability and decreasing acceptance of the risks involved.
“The biggest danger is the sheer size of the animal,” said Mark Riddell, spokesman for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. “Just a simple, slight movement by the animal can be fatal.”
Add that to the elephant’s need for direct human contact-because, says Meritt, the intelligent animal requires stimulation. The combination makes elephant tending what one study found to be one of the most dangerous jobs.
In 1990, for example, a 6,400-pound elephant stumbled after being startled by a passing car and fell on her handler, who was crushed to death. The elephant was being led to a flea market where the Hanneford Family Circus was performing.
“A lot of times if someone jumps in front of an animal, it can set them off,” Riddell said. “The key is just being aware of where the animal is and where it’s going.”
Francine and Phil Schacht are owners of Dondi, a 19-year-old elephant they purchased in Thailand in 1975. Former aerialists and trapeze artists, they now travel around the country with Dondi eight or nine months of the year, working at circuses. They are in town performing in the Shriners’ Circus at Medinah Temple.
They purposely made a lot of noise around her when she was young so noises wouldn’t spook her, but they said she will panic if people jump in front of her.
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Alan Varsik, assistant curator of mammals at the Lincoln Park Zoo, said the risk is just part of the job.
“Part of it’s accepting the hazards that go along with it,” he said.
But that risk is reflected in rising liablility costs.
The Schachts-two of several hundred private elephant owners nationwide-said their insurance rates have increased dramatically in recent years. And well-publicized accidents involving elephants have sent their rates up: They now carry a $500,000 policy.
Zoos are now looking for ways that keepers can maintain “protected contact” with the elephants. A barrier between the keeper and the animal may provide an “extra 30 or 60 seconds” that allow the keeper to avoid injury, Meritt said.
The zoo keepers at Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Wash., have established a routine that lets them stay out of trunk’s-reach of Cindy, a 30-year-old Asian elephant with a reputation for being nasty. They wash and care for her through barred barriers.
But Francine Schacht criticized the hands-off policy some zoos have adopted.
“The animals are going to suffer,” she said. “Every occupation has its risks.
“Even if a person gets killed, it’s not the elephant’s fault,” she said. “You can’t place yourself in a position where that can happen.”
He, Jennifer Warmbold, and two other keepers were trying to chain the elephant’s back leg when Warmbold slipped on the wet floor, let out a scream and fell backward.
The head keeper’s fall frightened or panicked the 1,500-pound elephant, who tried to turn toward the keeper, got tangled in the front leg chain and knelt onto her, Varsik said. A trainer pulled Warmbold out from under the elephant.
Zoo officials have ruled that the incident was an accident, not an act of aggression.
Warmbold, 30, was upgraded to good condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital Thursday afternoon, said trauma surgeon Wilson Hartz III.
Doctors performed surgery Wednesday night to clean out a deep puncture wound near her spine from the pliers she kept in her back pocket. Her sternum and left rib were fractured and her left lung slightly collapsed.
For the keepers, the accident was a startling reminder of the power of the animals.
“In the back of your mind, you’ve got to remember the animal weighs 6,000 pounds,” said Phil Schacht, “no matter how cute they are.”