Honourable senators, today I rise to speak to Bill S-241, known as the “Jane Goodall Act.” Since this bill was first placed before us, we have heard many inspirational, passionate, even lyrical speeches about the importance of protecting animals, especially “charismatic” mammals, including gorillas, elephants, tigers and whales, from abuse and exploitation.

Our cultural expectations for the proper care of captive wildlife in zoos and aquariums has changed radically over our lifetimes. Today, it is not enough for animals to be kept safe and well fed. We also demand that animals today be cared for and displayed in a way that recognizes and respects their dignity and autonomy. We now believe that the primary role of zoological gardens and marine parks is not to entertain children and sell popcorn, but to protect endangered species from extirpation and extinction. Canada’s zoos pride themselves on their breeding programs — their efforts not just to keep animals safe in captivity, but to work to reintroduce them, where and when possible, to their natural habitats.

This has been a radical paradigm shift. When I was growing up in Edmonton, I lived just a few blocks away from what was then called the Storyland Zoo. Animals were kept in enclosures that featured nursery rhyme and fairy tale settings and backdrops. There was no effort to keep the animals in naturalistic landscapes. They were there to be cute and to be part of a fairy tale, fantasy world.

But the zoo abandoned the Storyland theme decades ago. Today, the Edmonton Valley Zoo focuses primarily, though not exclusively, on northern and prairie animals who are well adapted to life at 53° latitude. The zoo strives to keep animals — where they can — in relatively naturalistic settings. Some of the older enclosures are still lacking, but the zoo is moving in the right direction, in keeping with emerging philosophies of zoo keeping.

The Edmonton Valley Zoo is also part of an international network involved in what is known as the Species Survival Plan, a program to help breed and restore populations of endangered or threatened species. It is specifically involved in the breeding and protection of the Amur tiger, the Grevy’s zebra, the snow leopard, the red panda and the Goeldi’s monkey. The zoo also supports the work of the Snow Leopard Trust, the Red Panda Network and the Amphibian Ark.

The Edmonton Valley Zoo has done its best to learn from the mistakes and prejudices of the past, and it strives to create a facility that offers educational opportunities to the community and to help safeguard species at risk.

I bring this up not just to mark the way the philosophy of Canadian zoo management has evolved over time but because the successes — and failures — of the Edmonton Valley Zoo highlight a problematic weakness in Bill S-241.

As currently drafted, the legislation pays extraordinary deference to the American standards of zoo and aquarium care as set by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, the AZA — although I guess that should be “A-zee-A,” which is sort of my point. The bill grants to the seven big Canadian zoos and marine parks that have achieved “A-zee-A” status particular privileges and exemptions, for which other Canadian zoos do not qualify. Never mind that Canada has its own agency that independently inspects and rates Canadian zoos, CAZA, which stands for Canada’s Accredited Zoos and Aquariums.

The bill doesn’t offer an explanation of why we should or would rely on American rather than Canadian standards. There seems to be an implicit suggestion that the American accreditation is better or, perhaps, harder to achieve. But as a Canadian, I am deeply uncomfortable with writing an explicit preference for American rather than Canadian protocols right into the text of the bill —

— especially without evidence that because it’s American, it’s automatically better.

If we’re worried that CAZA doesn’t have the right standards or enough teeth, surely, we should deal with that issue and not import U.S. rules and regulations right into our Canadian legislation. Today we may think that those rules are better, but given the cultural upheavals in the United States, do we really want to tie our legislation to American paradigms and models in the long term?

Making ourselves beholden to the judgment of American inspectors may also rob us of the chance to make nuanced decisions based on specific local situations, and here I want to circle back to the example of the Edmonton Valley Zoo and address, if you will, the elephant in the room.

One of the key reasons that the Valley Zoo has never achieved AZA accreditation is because it keeps a solitary Asian elephant, known to the public as Lucy. Lucy has lived at the zoo for 45 years, and her presence there has been contentious for decades, with lobby groups from around the world pushing for her removal to an American elephant sanctuary, many of which — for what it’s worth — also lack AZA accreditation.

Now, if I had a time machine and could undo the decision made more than four decades ago to bring Lucy to Edmonton, I would. The zoo should probably never have had an elephant in the first place. Elephants, as many of you have explained, are intelligent, social animals who do not thrive in solitude, and they are large animals who need space and freedom to roam. They aren’t meant to be housed in barns or corrals.

It’s one thing to say that the zoo should never have had an elephant or that it should improve its enclosures, but it’s quite another to insist that Lucy be moved now. For years, the British‑based animal rights group Free the Wild has led an international campaign calling for Lucy’s removal from the Valley Zoo. As recently as 2021, Free the Wild described Lucy as being “imprisoned” and in “purgatory.” Their public statement continued:

The question remains — Why does Edmonton Valley Zoo, after four decades of total exploitation, choose to continue to torture Lucy?

In response, the Edmonton Valley Zoo invited four independent experts chosen by Free the Wild to examine Lucy this past October. Last week, Free the Wild released their independent reports into Lucy’s health and care. Did the experts find evidence of torture?

Well, Ingo Schmidinger, who is an international expert in the care of captive elephants and who was, at the time of the examination, the Director of International Operations for the Global Sanctuary for Elephants, wrote this:

The team shows huge dedication to their daily tasks —

 — he reported of the staff at the Valley Zoo —

 — Extraordinary is the amount of Lucy’s caretaker . . . and the time spent with the elephant during all daily working hours, as well as the extreme attention she receives from each team member.

Schmidinger concluded that, ideally, Lucy should be moved to an elephant sanctuary but noted that because of a long-standing respiratory condition, he doubted she could be moved safely at this time. Lucy breathes and drinks only through her mouth and never through her trunk, which is extremely atypical. No one knows whether her trunk is blocked or obstructed in some way, and despite their best efforts, none of the four experts could figure out the cause of her respiratory distress.

Schmidinger wrote:

But, as the question with regard to her respiratory issue is still not answered, although this ailment has been observed and mentioned now at least since 2008 . . . we have to assume that under the current circumstances, and as we still don’t know what is happening to Lucy, she might not be fit for travel at this very moment.

A separate report co-authored by Dr. Frank Goeritz, Head Veterinarian at the Leibniz-Institut für Zoo- und Wildtierforschung in Berlin, and his colleague Thomas Hildebrandt, the Head of the Leibniz Institute’s Department of Reproduction Management, was far more definitive. They wrote:

In summary of all medical finding we conclude that Lucy is not fit for travel, neither for long nor for short distances. . . . Stress and even very mild physical activity brings Lucy in an anaerobic metabolic status, which can lead to total decompensation of her respiration and hence general metabolism.

They concluded:

Therefore Lucy should remain . . . . Aside from her ineligibility to travel she is a geriatric patient and would not be able to cope with her new environment (unfamiliar habitat, new caretaker staff, and other elephants). Lucy is receiving a high level of affection and attention from her keepers and veterinarians, which resulted in a specific management and enrichment program adapted to Lucy’s age and health status. She would not survive independently from humans. Ultimate goal is to keep Lucy stimulated and engaged and to provide her with good care for the rest of her live . . . .

Now, let me note that the median age of death for an elephant in captivity in the United Kingdom is 20. For an Asian elephant in captivity in North America, the median age of death is 43, and Lucy is already 47.

The fourth expert to examine Lucy, Dr. Patricia London, reached a different conclusion. Dr. London, an American veterinarian and the founder of the Asian Elephant Wellness Project, concluded that with appropriate cautions, Lucy might well survive a move to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee. But even though London was the most critical of Lucy’s living situation, she, too, had praise for Lucy’s caregiving team. She wrote:

. . . it is recognized that the staff seems very committed to taking care of Lucy. . . . I do think the current veterinary team is doing a good job monitoring Lucy, managing her pain, and has Lucy’s best interest in mind with everything they do and recommend. They have been very welcoming and open to any and all suggestions made medical-wise for Lucy.

Now, all this is not to give the Edmonton Valley Zoo an A plus grade in elephant care. The experts were all agreed that Lucy would benefit from more exercise, a diet with less hay and fruit and more celery and parsley — wouldn’t we all — better quality sand to lie on, access to a pool or pond of water and far more freedom to roam naturally. And as an Edmontonian, I share Dr. London’s frustration that many of these recommendations were made in the past but were not acted upon. When the City of Edmonton took on the responsibility of caring for an elephant 45 years ago, it needed to ensure that the elephant received the best possible care to the very end of her days.

But to talk about torture and purgatory? Such overheated rhetoric makes it easy to raise money but not easy to make decisions in Lucy’s best interests.

Now, I have dwelt for some time on Lucy’s case because some of you have raised very specific and florid concerns about her well-being in your own speeches and I wanted you all to have the latest independent analysis of her health status from four independent experts hired by Free the Wild.

But Lucy’s case illustrates the importance of Bill S-241 because it will severely limit the ability of other zoos to make the same mistakes the Valley Zoo did 45 years ago. But it also illustrates the limitations of this bill, with its overreliance on American — not Canadian — standards and its easy assumption that if it’s American, it must be better.

When this bill does go to committee, I hope members will push beyond sentiment and make a decision based on scientific evidence. We must be good stewards of the animals in our care and ensure that our zoos and aquariums are fit for purpose for the 21st century. But we must also ensure that we make those decisions in Canada and take responsibility for them here.

Thank you, hiy hiy.