Wildlife experts want to stop zoo going ahead with elephant plan

Critics say Burma should be sent overseas. Photo / Kellie Blizard

Some of the most powerful voices in world wildlife welfare have banded together with leading zoo professionals to stop Auckland Zoo forming a herd of elephants living in inner-city Western Springs Park.

They also want the zoo's one remaining elephant, Burma, sent overseas to live with other elephants in an open-range zoo or sanctuary.

The draft letter, obtained exclusively by The Aucklander and signed by 20 wildlife lobbyists, is understood to have been sent to the new Auckland Council.

It includes the head of Britain's Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals wildlife division, Dr Robert Atkinson, and the head of the globally recognised Born Free Foundation. Influential groups in the United States, Kenya, Norway, Australia and New Zealand have aligned themselves with the letter.

They ask the new council to reconsider the defunct Auckland City Council's decision to allow the zoo to expand into Western Springs Park and buy more Asian elephants.

In an estimated $13 million project, the zoo plans to expand into 22,000sq m of the park to cater for a herd, built up over time, of 10 elephants. The wildlife professionals say the $13 million is grossly underestimated, citing US and Australian experience.

In the strongly worded nine-point draft, the signatories say:

* No urban zoo in the world can adequately cater to the needs of elephants.

* Removing the herd from Asia is unethical.

* Keeping 10 elephants is not a sound investment - to maintain a herd will cost ratepayers $1 million a year.

"The good name of the city of Auckland, and of New Zealand as a country, will be damaged," they write.

The Auckland Council could not confirm whether it had received the draft letter or provide a response.