When Ron Kagan closed the Detroit Zoo’s elephant exhibit, only the elephants were happy.
Elephants were a signature attraction that drove attendance, and no American zoo had ever given up the prized pachyderms on humanitarian grounds. But 20 years ago, Kagan, the zoo’s soon-to-retire executive director, saw that the harsh Detroit winters were unnatural for Winky and Wanda, the pair of elderly Asia-born elephants in his care. They both suffered arthritis and foot ailments caused by hard zoo grounds, and a lack of proper exercise and socialization had left them depressed.
But the idea of shutting down the zoo’s most popular draw baffled the zoo world and worried the board that oversaw him. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association, in fact, threatened to withdraw the Detroit zoo’s accreditation if Kagan went through with it.