ABSTRACT
So the abolishing of zoos would mean losing much of great value. Roy Hattersley (1991) finds London Zoo still essentially a menagerie compared to the elephants he can see charging across the screen of his television set. Well, elephant keeping at London has been strongly criticised (Travers 1987), and Casson’s great Elephant House is very far from ideal, as I have made clear. But I have myself very much enjoyed watching elephants at Whipsnade, partly because they were clearly enjoying themselves. London has recently made considerable changes to its own approach to elephant keeping, reintroducing close handling, with elephants walking among the public and so on, as was a traditional part of London Zoo in the 1930s and before. But it is true that zoos aren’t very good with elephants; several (like Edinburgh and Glasgow) have decided not to keep them. Chester, on the other hand, has long had a deserved reputation for its success in keeping (and breeding) elephants.
