Correspondence

31 July 2024: letter from Zoos Expert Committee to Baroness Hayman, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State

Published 24 May 2025

The Rt Hon. Baroness Hayman

Minister of State (Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs)

31 July 2024

Zoo Experts Committee response to the Elephant Working Group Report

Dear Baroness Hayman,

I would like to introduce myself as the current Chair of the Zoo Experts Committee (ZEC) and very much look forward to working with you in this role in the future. One of the outputs of ZEC was a report on the Elephant Working Group (EWG) submission that was sent to your predecessor, Lord Benyon, in November 2022. This report formed ZECs response to a series of questions posed to ZEC by Lord Benyon’s predecessor, Lord Goldsmith, on captive elephant welfare in the UK over the previous ten years. ZEC and the EWG did not receive an official response to the report before the change of administration occurred and this has resulted in a pause in the work of the EWG and the independent monitoring of elephant welfare in Great Britain (GB) which we are concerned about.

ZEC believes our previously submitted recommendations are still appropriate and we would be grateful if you could consider whether these are acceptable viz:

1. The EWG 10-year report shows improvement in elephant welfare and therefore for the time being, and in line with the proposed new elephant standards, captive elephant keeping can continue in GB, but must be kept under active review and must demonstrate continuous ongoing improvements in welfare.

2. The Elephant Working Group continues to collate information going forward and produces further reports at two-yearly intervals, on the welfare of elephants in captivity in GB using the welfare tools they have already developed. Their findings, where improvement in welfare can be indicated, should be published and recommendations scrutinised and implemented where appropriate.

3. Further refinement of the welfare tool, particularly to assess psychological well-being and to gather more information on outdoor enclosure use in relation to climate.

4. APHA appoints and trains more elephant inspectors to allow regular and thorough scrutiny of the keeping of elephants in captivity in Great Britain.

5. There needs to be evidence from all elephant keeping zoos/institutions that they have a credible plan to comply with the new zoo standards and significant changes outlined in Appendix 1.8 (Elephants) before their proposed enforcement dates and by no later than the 31 December 2025, which must be made available to the Defra appointed elephant inspectorate for assessment.

6. The development of an ethical review process relating to the keeping of elephants in captivity.

We appreciate with the new zoo standards being delayed this impacts the exact dates referred to in this list of recommendations and we are also aware that without changes to the current Zoo Licensing Act (ZLA) point 4 and the proposed enforcement of point 5, cannot currently be carried out, although we would still hope several changes to the ZLA may be considered by this government which I would be very happy to discuss further.

On behalf of ZEC I would of course welcome any additional suggestions or questions you may have on the attached report or the recommendations proposed here. Yours sincerely,

Prof. Simon Girling BVMS(Hons) PhD DZooMed DipECZM(ZHM) EurProBiol CBiol FRSB FRCVS

Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Recognised Specialist in Zoo & Wildlife Medicine EBVS® European Veterinary Specialist in Zoo Health Management

Chair, Zoo Experts Committee