Invest in zoo, elephants

A zoo without elephants isn’t much of a zoo, and Sedgwick County’s is a great one. The County Commission should invest $5.3 million to match private dollars and ensure the Sedgwick County Zoo can keep its two beloved elephants and add others while maintaining its crucial accreditation.

The $10.5 million plan on the commission’s Wednesday agenda calls for an 18,000-square-foot barn as part of a five-acre exhibit. It would offer a better visitor experience and, most important, provide a larger and more healthful living environment for Stephanie and Cinda, the South African elephants that have called the zoo home for 42 years. It could accommodate four more of the massive animals short term and as many as nine into the future. The hope is to open the exhibit on Memorial Day 2016.

It would have been better if the Sedgwick County Zoological Society had been free to make the decision about expanding the elephant exhibit on its own timetable and terms. But the Association of Zoos and Aquariums makes the rules zoos must comply with to be accredited – and to have the ability to obtain animals and the credibility to attract private funds.

And the AZA has given the 70 zoos with elephants until Sept. 1, 2016, to hold a minimum of three females (or have the space to hold three females), two males or three elephants of mixed gender.

Though two commissioners seem eager to spend as little as possible, the zoo’s board wisely has used the AZA mandate for a bigger barn and exhibit space to commit to having a breeding herd. That would make the Sedgwick County Zoo an admirable partner in addressing the worldwide threat to elephants posed by their estimated 96 deaths a day in Africa due to poaching and loss of habitat. It also would offer the prospect of someday having a baby elephant – a gate-busting crowd-pleaser in other zoos.

It’s impressive that $4.3 million was raised from 50 individual and corporate donors in one year – in a tough economy and as other capital campaigns were underway in the community. Volunteers have committed to finding $1 million more privately.

Plus, the county’s sound management of its tight finances in recent years has provided it a healthy $60 million in reserves. That puts the county in the position to handle, in addition to the annual operating funding it provides the zoo, such a one-time investment of $5.3 million in the long-term quality of life of the community and the No. 1 family attraction in the state.

“Are we going to have one of the best zoos in the country? Are we going to keep it that way as a long-term goal?” Commission Chairman Dave Unruh asked at last week’s meeting.

The commission can ensure the answer is “yes” by voting to pay for a bigger and better elephant barn.

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published September 16, 2014 at 7:07 PM with the headline "Invest in zoo, elephants."