Quotes from:
Alan Roocroft/ James Oosterhuis, Foot Care
for Captive Elephants
in: The Elephant´s Foot by
Csuti/Sargent/Bechert (editors), 2001
p. 21:
"We believe that no matter how good a foot care
program is, eventually foot problems will be seen because
they are the result of keeping elephants in captivity.”
p. 22:
“Unlike their wild counterparts, who tend to walk for up to 18 hours every day on different substrates, relatively sedentary captive elephants wear their pads down very little. The pads become overgrown and cracked, which provides an environment for infection. The nails also need periodic attention so they don´t become overgrown and crowd one another. Crowding reduces the space between the individual nails and leads to the entrapment of fecal material and moisture, creating an environment for infection.”
“Unfortunately, most captive elephants spend the majority of their time standing on concrete or asphalt floors. Elephants should be housed for the majority of the day on resilient, interactive, yielding substrates.“
p. 37:
“The wild elephant, unlike its captive counterpart, can walk away from its own feces and urine. In most management situations, the captive elephant is housed on a concrete or asphalt floor in an indoor facility for up to 60 percent of its time. Inevitably it must stand and walk in its own feces and urine, which collects in the cracks of the pad and between the nails. Urine is corrosive and feces contain numerous organisms that may cause infection if the feet are not washed daily.”
p. 37/ 38:
“We feel that the elephant is not genetically programmed to withstand the constant graviational pressure of living on hard surfaces and carrying the excessive weight typical of most captive elephants. Elephants certainly didn´t evolve to stand motionless for long periods of time. The inactive, overfed, overweight, out-of-shape, captive elephant, which may or may not have some abnormal behavioral activities, is predisposed to foot problems like abscesses and cracks. We feel that the lack of exercise decreases the overall vitality of the structure of the captive elephant´s foot. This lack of vitality is further exacerbated by the added weight most elephants carry and by the fact that the majority of their time is spent on hard, unyielding surfaces."
p. 44:
“The bottom line is that abscess prevention is the best course of action. Prevention of abscesses requires: 1) exercise to strengthen foot structures and maintain good blood flow to the foot; 2) reduction in weight to reduce pressure on the foot; 3) allowing the elephant to live on soft, yielding surfaces; 4) elimination of behavoir motions that cause abnormal stress on the foot, 5)…..”
p. 48:
“Environmental conditions are so important to the health of an elephant´s feet that we are mentioning them again. When comparing to the conditions of a captive elephant´s environment to its counterparts in the wild, it is easy to see the multitude of insults we impose on their feet. Some conditions can cause problems rather quickly, like sharp metal objects that an elephant can accidentally hit with its feet. Others, including lack of movement, take years of accumulation to manifest into problems. "
Resumes for Alan Roocroft and James Oosterhuis:
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