"There are so many of these old elephants that are withering away and dying," says Courtney Scott, an IDA elephant consultant. "They call them the 'Golden Girls,' but they're really old decaying, decrepit elephants."
Although IDA admits that its annual rankings are more about highlighting zoo mistreatment across the country than they are a reflection of empirical data, the California-based organization still accuses the zoo of serious mistreatment, including keeping aging elephants in a one-acre enclosure that causes trauma and brain damage because of its small size. The animal watchdog group added that the zoo "exploited" elephants by making them perform yoga and paint with "pigment applied to their sensitive trunks."
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo doesn't appear to be too concerned about IDA's claims. Zoo president and CEO Bob Chastain brushed off the criticisms, telling Westword the zoo is "simply too busy improving the lives of animals to be bothered by this annual list, which is ignored by most people."
More than a decade ago, the zoo decided to specialize in housing and caring for aging female African elephants. Since then, it has acquired six elephants to live out their twilight years in Colorado Springs; one of the six, Malaika, died in 2023.
The remaining "Golden Girls" of Cheyenne Mountain are Jambo, Missy, LouLou, Kimba and Lucky, according to the zoo. All of them were born in the wild; the zoo expects African elephants to live to about sixty years old, and the Golden Girls herd are in their forties, with the exception of the 55-year-old Missy.
Scott responded to Chastain's comments by saying, "All you have to do is look at the elephants. All you have to do is see their behavior. It's extremely stressed-out behavior."
The zoo has received heat for the Golden Girls' confinement before. In October, the Colorado Supreme Court heard arguments for a lawsuit against Cheyenne Mountain Zoo filed on behalf of the five elephants by the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP), an animal rights group. The lawsuit, filed in June 2023, claims the elephants are unlawfully imprisoned, and that the elephants should have the right to challenge their confinement in court.
The zoo defended itself by calling the NhRP "an extreme animal rights organization" and the lawsuit a "manipulative fundraising act," according to a public statement from October. Before the case reached the state supreme court, however, the lawsuit was dismissed in December 2023 by a 4th Judicial District Court judge, who said that "nonhuman animals" can't file a lawsuit, NhRP doesn't have the right to file one on the Golden Girls' behalf, and the elephants at Cheyenne Mountain "are not unlawfully confined," according to an appeal filed in June.
This is the first time the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has been named to one of IDA's worst-zoos lists, which have been coming out for twenty years.
The Denver Zoo avoided the negative spotlight this year after being on the list last year and in 2013. IDA called out the zoo last year for its breeding program, and in 2013 for bringing a bull elephant, Billy, in by plane from Belgium.
The Denver Zoo runs a unique semen-collecting program for Asian elephants. The zoo only keeps young male elephants, and regularly stimulates their prostates to collect their semen, which is used mostly for research. However, zoos across North America ask the Denver Zoo to ship its elephant semen in order to produce new elephants via artificial insemination, which is easier than shipping the elephants themselves.
Scott explains that a zoo disappearing from the list doesn't mean that conditions for elephants have improved there. Each year, IDA tries to call out zoos for different reasons with its lists. This year, a focus on the treatment of aging elephants meant that the Denver Zoo was spared criticism for its semen program; while she expects Denver will be on the list again, she gives zoo officials credit for having an older elephant around to mentor the younger elephants, like their species would in the wild.
"They do have one old elephant, Groucho. Groucho is 54, but they've also got five other much younger elephants," Scott says. "As much as I'd like to see Groucho retired to sanctuary, in the wild, older elephants teach younger elephants. That's what I'm sure the zoo is thinking."
In Defense of Animals has been around for more than forty years. According to the organization, it has more than 250,000 supporters and boasts celebrity connections, with Bill Maher, Sarah Silverman and Ricky Gervais among its most notable high-profile boosters.
