The Washington Post - 22.08.2019

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

CALIFORNIA

School reopens probe

of Nazi salute video

School officials in Orange
County said they will reopen an
investigation into a group of high
school students seen on video
giving Nazi salutes last year after
additional racist images
surfaced, according to a report
Wednesday.
The initial video obtained by
the Daily Beast — which posted
about eight seconds of it — shows
members of the boys’ water polo
team at Pacifica High School in
an empty room that
administrative officials say was
later used for an athletic
banquet. The video showed
about 10 boys in a stiff-arm salute
while singing a Nazi marching
song.
The Garden Grove Unified
School District said in a
statement that the footage was
recorded in November but that
administrators hadn’t become
aware of the video until March. It
said the students were
unsupervised at the time. The
district said Monday that
administrators had “addressed
the situation with all students
and families involved” but did
not specify what disciplinary
actions it took.

The Los Angeles Times

reported that since Monday,

officials said several other videos

showing students engaged in

hate speech have surfaced. Those

videos will be examined as part

of the district’s reopened

investigation. It was not

immediately clear what’s in the

new videos or whether they

included students from Pacifica

High.

Pacifica High School Principal

Steve Osborne apologized during

a school board meeting Tuesday

for failing to address the original

video with the entire school

immediately after it was brought

to administrators’ attention.

— Associated Press

GEORGIA

4 students wounded

at college block party

Four college students were

wounded when a gunman

opened fire into a crowd of 200

people outside a library near

Clark Atlanta University and

then escaped in the chaos,

authorities said.

All four injured women were

in stable condition after the

gunfire, which happened shortly

after 10:30 p.m. Tuesday. None of

the injuries were considered to

be life-threatening, Atlanta

police said.

The gunshots began after an

argument broke out between two

parties and someone opened fire,

investigators said.

The shooter had not yet been

apprehended as of Wednesday

evening.

The four students were shot

outside a library that serves

Clark Atlanta and other nearby

historically black colleges.

Two of the victims, ages 17 and

18, are students at Spelman

College, a nearby women’s

school. Investigators believe the

other two women, ages 18 and 19,

are Clark Atlanta students, police

said.

The block party, held the night

before the first day of classes, was

celebrating the end of

orientation for new students.

On Wednesday, there was a

heavy security presence on

campus and in front of the

library.

— Associated Press

Man charged over Trump-

shaped ecstasy pills: A Florida

man who was found to have

ecstasy pills shaped like

President Trump’s head has been

charged with unlawful

possession of controlled

substances, the Pinellas County

Sheriff ’s Office said. Brendan

Dolan-King, 23, was charged on

Friday in Clearwater after police

searched his apartment in June

and discovered fentanyl and five

orange pills shaped like Trump’s

head, which were later found to

contain the hallucinogen MDMA,

or ecstasy. The confiscation

resembles an incident in Indiana

in 2018, when the Lafayette

Courier-Journal reported that

police patrolling an interstate

highway seized an orange tablet

in the shape of the 45th

president’s head, with his lips

puckered on the front and “Great

Again” printed on the back.

— From news services

DIGEST

ROBERT F. BUKATY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Early risers are rewarded with a colorful sunrise over Casco Bay in Portland, Maine, on Wednesday.

Politics & the Nation

BY KARIN BRULLIARD

The bullhook — a rod with a
blunt or pointed hook at one end
— has been used for centuries to
get elephants to do humans’ bid-
ding. And although the tool is now
associated with some of the worst
abuses of the hulking animals and
is prohibited in several cities and
states, it has remained in use at
top American zoos.
That is set to change. The board
of the Association of Zoos and
Aquariums, an accrediting or-
ganization that previously de-
fended bullhooks as essential
management tools, recently voted
to phase out the instrument’s use
in routine elephant care and
training by the start of 2021. It
also approved a statement of in-
tent to end the use of bullhooks
except in emergencies and non-
routine medical care by 2023. The
decisions will affect about 30 zoos
that still use bullhooks to varying
degrees, according to the AZA.
Dan Ashe, president and CEO
of the association, said in an inter-
view that the change was not
inspired by concerns about el-
ephant welfare at member zoos,
which he said use bullhooks in
limited circumstances as
“guides.” Instead, he said, the
board wanted its standards to
“reflect modern zoological prac-
tice.” In an internal survey this
summer, nearly 80 percent of the
62 AZA zoos that care for 305
elephants said they do not use
bullhooks or the changes would
have no or little impact on their
programs, he said.
“The fact that most of our mem-
bers are not using bullhooks at all

and are managing elephants quite

successfully indicates that alter-

native procedures are available,”

Ashe said. Given that, he added,

“and its historical association

with archaic, abusive treatment of

elephants, the board decided this

was a good step.”

Scrutiny of elephant captivity

has grown alongside an expanding

body of research documenting the

animals’ keen intelligence, com-

plex social structures and unique

physical and psychological needs.

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bai-

ley Circus ended in 2017 following

public pressure and local laws that

forced it to retire its famed el-

ephant acts. Some zoos have closed

their elephant exhibits, citing ethi-

cal concerns. This week, members

of the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species are

considering a proposal that would

restrict the sale of wild African

elephants to zoos in the United

States and elsewhere.

The AZA’s shift on bullhooks is

“a long-overdue move to protect

elephants from a weapon whose

only purpose is to inflict pain or

evoke the fear of pain,” said Ra-

chel Mathews, deputy director of

captive animal law enforcement

at the PETA Foundation. Nicole

Paquette, chief programs and pol-

icy officer at the Humane Society

of the United States, said she was

“encouraged” by the AZA’s phase-

out of a “horrible, outdated train-

ing tool.” Both groups called on

the association to oppose the im-

portation of wild elephants.

AZA prohibited most “free con-

tact” between keepers and ele-

phants starting in 2011, and zoos

now manage the animals primari-

ly through barriers. That move,

made to protect keepers after

high-profile deaths, ended the use

of bullhooks at many zoos. At

others, the tools — also known as

ankuses or goads — have contin-

ued to be used through the barri-

ers to tap, prod, push and pull the

animals.

The 2011 decision was contro-

versial within zoos. Some closed

their elephant exhibits in re-

sponse, and one, the Pittsburgh

Zoo, left the association over what

it called a “philosophical differ-

ence of opinion.” Some people

with ties to the industry, who

spoke on the condition of ano-

nymity about internal discus-

sions, said similar discord is sim-

mering over the bullhook policy.

Ashe said only a “small seg-

ment” of zoos protested the move.

A spokeswoman for one that has

recently faced criticism for its use

of bullhooks, the Roger Williams

Park Zoo in Providence, R.I., said

Tuesday that the facility would

comply with the change.

“This is a great decision by the

board. If you’re not pushing for-

ward and raising standards, ev-

eryone kind of gets held hostage

by intransigent members,” said

Otto Fad, an animal behavior con-

sultant who eliminated bullhooks

and free contact when he was

hired in 2004 as elephant manag-

er at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay,

where he worked until 2017. “I

think it took some guts knowing

what resistance they were going

to face doing this.”

Fad described bullhooks as

“aversive” tools, even if they aren’t

used to beat elephants. A bit of

pressure can be an uncomfortable

and powerful signal to an el-

ephant, as can the mere presence

of a bullhook, he said.

“From a behavioral standpoint,

what do you do if mild discomfort

isn’t enough? You’re going to push

a little bit harder,” said Fad, who

trains zoos and aquariums on pos-

itive reinforcement methods,

which emphasize rewards.

Rob Shumaker, president of the

AZA-accredited Indianapolis Zoo,

said the zoo’s staff uses a bullhook

only to “cue” an elephant, and

mostly as an arm extension when

dealing with the enormous ani-

mals. Recently, he said, he observed

the dental exam of one of the tallest

of the zoo’s six African elephants.

The animal’s mouth wasn’t open

quite wide enough for the veteri-

narian to see inside, he said.

“So the trainer just took the

ankus and tapped underneath the

trunk near his mouth and asked

him to lift his trunk up higher.

And he did,” Shumaker said.

Asked what he thought about

the AZA decision, Shumaker said,

“If this helps change public per-

ception, then we’re all better off as

a result.”

[email protected]

Zoo group votes to phase out bullhook use on elephants

Accrediting organization

says other methods can

replace controversial tool

RICH PEDRONCELLI/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which previously defended bullhooks as essential management tools, now intends to only allow

them in emergencies and in non-routine medical care. The decision will affect about 30 of the association’s zoos, according to the AZA.

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