Elephants are surrounded on all sides by roller coasters and fireworks. Photo: Weeping Elephant Project
TAMPA, Fla. (August, 2026)— Following the death of a second elephant in less than two years, In Defense of Animals joins the Weeping Elephant Project in demanding an independent investigation into Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Newly-released testimonies (see link to report below) from former zoo keepers expose severe animal welfare violations, a culture of retaliation against staff, and a massive conflict of interest protecting the theme park from accountability.
Calls For Investigation
The calls for an investigation follow the July 2026 death of Carina, a 54-year-old Asian elephant who was euthanized following three separate emergencies where she collapsed and was unable to stand within a six-day period. Her death closely mirrors the fate of Rosie, another 54-year-old Asian elephant who collapsed during a park fireworks event in 2022, and was left unable to stand for over five hours. She never fully recovered, and was euthanized two years later.
According to the Weeping Elephant Project’s damning new investigative report, park management willfully ignored the animals’ suffering and ordered staff to stop documenting stress behaviors.
“Staff asked if fireworks would be suspended until Rosie could make it back to the barn and be evaluated. The answer was a simple no. None of this was ever made transparent to the public,” revealed a former employee in an anonymous report submitted to the Weeping Elephant Project.
Formal Complaints Filed
Former animal care specialists filed formal complaints with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) in October 2024. Despite these filings, no corrective action was taken. More than 80 zoo employees have left since 2021, and dozens of animals have died, including eight endangered great apes.
Advocates point to a glaring conflict of interest as the primary reason complaints have been ignored by regulators: Dr. Chris Dold, Chief Zoological Officer at Busch Gardens’ parent company (United Parks & Resorts), currently serves as the Chair of the AZA Board of Directors — the primary body responsible for accrediting the park.
“With United Parks & Resorts’ Chief Zoological Officer simultaneously serving as Chair of the AZA Board of Directors, this is a glaring conflict of interest that allows the park to self-regulate without real accountability,” said Danielle Carnahan, Executive Director at Weeping Elephant Project.
Numerous issues are still negatively affecting animals at Busch Gardens, but major concerns lie with the treatment of the park’s surviving elephants, Karnaudi, Tina and Simba.
Kumba’s Revenge Rollercoaster Planned Close To Elephant
Despite proven noise and vibration trauma caused by existing rides, elephant-down emergencies, deaths and known stress caused by fireworks, loud guests, and construction, Busch Gardens is moving forward with “Kumba’s Revenge,” a new rollercoaster planned less than 600 feet from the elephants’ barn as part of a $100 million usd/ $138.7 million cad [exchange rate at time of posting] park expansion. Former keepers report the ground of the elephant barn shaking during previous coaster construction. While the park recently launched a drone show under the guise of animal welfare, it still concludes with an explosive fireworks finale.
Further alarming advocates, sources indicate the park is currently planning to import two elephants into this highly stressful environment.
This plan directly contradicts an independent veterinary specialist who consulted on Rosie’s collapse and stated in the October 2024 USDA complaint that she “would not advise the placement of additional elephants at Busch Gardens” given the “constant overexposure to loud music, screaming guests, and non-stop rollercoasters.”
Silencing Of Staff
“It is unconscionable that a facility currently failing its surviving elephants — and silencing staff who document their suffering — is actively planning to import more animals,” Carnahan added. “Busch Gardens is a theme park masquerading as a zoo, where profit and entertainment come first and dedicated care staff are threatened into silence when they speak up. We don’t need performative PR tweaks or more imported elephants; we need an immediate, independent investigation into this broken institution.”
Carina’s death has also triggered a social crisis for the remaining herd. Former keepers report that surviving elephant Tina is now entirely socially isolated, while 36-year-old Karnaudi is only compatible with Simba, a 58-year-old elephant suffering from blindness and severe cognitive decline.
“The Busch Gardens elephants should be retired to a sanctuary before they have to endure another traumatic coaster construction,” said Courtney Scott, Elephant Consultant for In Defense of Animals. “This whistleblower report makes it very clear how badly the elephants and the other animals at Busch Gardens were treated. Now the public can see exactly what they are supporting by purchasing a ticket to Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, and they have responded en masse, sending thousands of emails to management and corporate sponsors. People care about animal welfare. Now it’s time for this zootainment facility to do likewise.”
Over 37,000 emails have been sent to Busch Gardens management, and over 32,000 emails have been sent to the AZA and its Species Survival Plan, urging them not to bring more elephants into the park. Over 8,800 more have urged the zoo’s corporate partners to pull funding, including Advent Health, Suncoast Credit Union, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola, Keel Farms, Tampa Bay Lightning, Woodie’s Wash Shack, and Yacht Starship.
In Defense of Animals has released its respected annual list of the Ten Worst Zoos For Elephants for 2016, exposing the shocking hidden suffering of elephants in zoos in North America. The list reveals captivity-related deaths, abuse with weapons, grossly inadequate conditions, families ripped apart, elephants torn from Africa and shipped to US zoos, elephants forced to wash cars, and even elephants found playing with a car battery.
“2016 was a shocking year for zoo elephant suffering”, said In Defense of Animals President, Dr. Marilyn Kroplick. “In our zoos, elephants’ rights are violated, they are stripped of their dignity, and submitted to disgusting abuses. We owe it to elephants to stop exploiting them. It is time to shut down archaic and barbaric zoo exhibits, and retire elephants to sanctuaries where they can live in peace.”
Zoos all over the US and one zoo in Canada appear on the worst list, with Oklahoma City Zoo shamed as the #1 Worst Zoo. Tragic captive elephant Chai was found dead outside the Oklahoma elephant exhibit on a very cold January morning in 2016, at just 37 years old. She had lost 1,000 pounds since she was shipped in from Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle. Gut-wrenching footage reveals Chai in a severely emaciated and weak state, being hoisted on a crane after she was unable to stand up. After her death, Chai was found to have been suffering from a bacterial infection and untreated pus-filled abscesses, marking a gross failing of the zoo to provide basic animal care.
Chai’s only friend Bamboo survives her, and has since had two inches of her tail bitten off by another frustrated elephant in their prison-like pen. Bamboo has been kept in either in solitary confinement with the aggressive female, or in the occasional company of a young male; none of these circumstances constitute even reasonable social companionship. Yet Oklahoma Zoo callously describes this sad elephant inmate as doing “great”.
Chai and Bamboo are not the only victims of Oklahoma Zoo’s mismanagement. Baby elephant Malee died at in late 2015 at the age of just four. She was likely killed by the same herpes virus the zoo knew Chai and Bamboo had been exposed to.
All these tragedies may have been avoided by sending Chai and Bamboo to a sanctuary home that offered to accept the pair when Woodland Park Zoo shut down its elephant exhibit in 2014.
Shockingly, Oklahoma City Zoo is among half of all the captive facilities shamed on the Ten Worst Zoos List that are accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, showing how little AZA certification stands for. In 2016, the Association’s own study found social aspects of elephant lives to be of paramount importance to their wellbeing, yet 20% of AZA accredited zoos with elephant exhibits have only two elephants. Some AZA certified zoos are even keeping highly social elephants in isolation, such as the Bronx Zoo, where Happy the female elephant is tragically separated from two other females.
Zoos are consumers, not conservers, of elephants. Captive elephants are dying faster than they can reproduce, leading zoos to steal young elephants from the wild, which destroys the elephant societies zoos claim to be conserving. Behind the scenes, zoos in the US and Canada are condemning Earth’s largest land mammals to lifetimes of deprivation, disease, despair, and early death. It is time to end our shameful exploitation of elephants in American zoos.
10 WORST ZOOS:
1. Oklahoma City Zoo, Oklahoma
2. Natural Bridge Zoo, Rockbridge County, Virginia
In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization with over 250,000 supporters and a 30-year history of fighting for animals, people and the environment through education, campaigns and hands on rescue facilities in India, Africa, and rural Mississippi.
IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS • 3010 KERNER BLVD. • SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901 • 415-448-0048 Please mention thesilo.ca when calling.
