Franklin Zoo (Closed) Elephant Kills Woman at Franklin Zoo

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This is just terrible.

@Chlidonias: I think elephants can stumble like humans do, but I have seen a lot of elephants interacting with their fragile newborn calves, and I have no doubts that an elephant has amazing body control and is very sensitive. Otherwise they would crush their young all the times. There may be a rare case here and there that a keeper really gets hurt or killed "by accident" and not through an attack, but people keep talking about "accidents" even when the video shows that the elephant delibaretely crushes the keeper. Or better, they even claim "the elephant/tiger/orca wanted to protected her"!
 
agree 100% cadders
an animal that needs a long transition period for a new handler
many people love their animals dearly but don't understand the little nuances in handling them
you can have as much knowledge as possible but it needs to be combined with ability
common sense has become CITIES appendix 1
 
The zoo has posted on facebook that they are quite upset about comments Mila may be put down. They want to see Helen's dreams forMila come to fruition but are taking it all one day at a time. i think Auckland Zoo should also be commended for all of their assistance to the zoo at this time.
 
Not sure I agree with the statement that an elephant never does anything by accident.
the only other case of a keeper being killed by accident in NZ was back in about 1954, when Auckland Elephant Jamuna swung her head hitting the keeper as he was climbing through the bars, and knocked him head first into a wall. That was considered an accident at the time.

NZ also had it's rogue elephant too. Someone can correct me on any details please, but I believe the stuffed Elephant at the Auckland Museum was a zoo Indian elephant named Rajah, who had been aggressive and dangerous all of the time he was in NZ, and was finally shot because he was considered too much of a risk to keep.

Elephants do make mistakes, in the wild elephant caves get trampled or drowned or knocked over, even by their mothers on occasion.

I can't speak for wild Indian Elephants but in Africa the female elephant is considered by many to be the most dangerous animal, and not just the mothers with calves. The spinster Aunty elephants, especially those with no tusks, are always the most aggressive and stroppy of the heard. Smaller tuskless females seem to have a permanent chip on their shoulders, and will often charge and attack for no reason. Plus the females can often go from placid browsers to full on attack in an instant. In contrast the males seldom ever attack, maybe because they don't live with the females, so long as they are brought up in natural lifestyle. Elephants are obviously individuals to some extent and have their own personalties and levels of aggressive response, even in the wild.

There are numerous videos around of Elephants attacking their keepers, many of them showing formerly trusted and safe animals running amuck. the one lesson to be learned from these attacks is probably never give the elephant a chance to injure or kill anyone.
 
Well, the accident theory seems to be a bit unlikely now. Poor Helen. Jeez, I am so sorry for her and her family and staff:

Visitors and staff watched in horror as zoo keeper Dr Helen Schofield tried to run from the elephant that killed her, only to trip close to the door and be dragged back inside and picked up by the elephant's trunk.

New details have emerged of the horrifying last few minutes of Dr Schofield's life and the frantic effort to save her.

She was killed late Wednesday afternoon when 39-year-old African elephant Mila picked her up after she went in to calm it down.

The Herald has been told the animal received a shock after it brushed its trunk against an electric fence that secures its enclosure.

It's understood Dr Schofield had been in the enclosure just before the incident and had been speaking to zoo-goers about Mila.

She had left the enclosure, but went back inside with a bucket of fruit to try to calm it down after someone reported the elephant suddenly jumped at least 1m sideways after the electric shock.

Mila put her head down and advanced, slowly at first, but then with increasing speed. Dr Schofield turned and ran - but tripped about a metre from the enclosure's exit.

The Herald understands Mila, who is estimated to weigh three tonnes, used her trunk to pull her back by the leg, wrapped her trunk around the vet's midsection, and picked her up.

Onlookers said Dr Schofield was able to speak and calmly called the command to put her down.

Mila eventually knelt and pushed her trunk down on a bank in the enclosure, as Dr Schofield asked to be let go.

When Mila finally released her she was still talking and was seen to move. Mila backed away but then moved towards her again and repeatedly brushed her trunk up against her - and she didn't move again.

Franklin Zoo staff members entered the enclosure and used food and hay to lure Mila away.

When an advanced paramedic arrived soon after, Dr Schofield was dead.

Mila had been known to be aggressive and unsettled in the past. Dr Schofield was the only one who would enter her enclosure and was said to have developed a bond with the elephant who become more passive under her care.

In a statement yesterday, staff from Franklin Zoo said there had been many messages of support and donations had already started to come in.

"Helen was incredibly passionate about the welfare of animals, and your sentiments are a reflection of how giving and selfless she was. Special thanks goes to the team from Auckland Zoo who have been a big help ensuring the animals continue receiving the care they need," the statement on the zoo's Facebook site said.

Dr Schofield was owner and director of the Franklin Zoo, where she had set up a charitable trust to take on exotic animals in need of new homes.

Zoo workers were being assisted by colleagues from Auckland Zoo but no decisions had been made last night on what would happen to Mila.

A friend of Dr Schofield's said her family didn't bear any ill-feeling towards the animal, but zoo staff would have to consult the SPCA and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries before any final decision was made.

The day before her death, she spoke to the director of animal rights organisation Safe NZ about her optimism for Mila's future and her hopes to eventually send her to a bigger sanctuary.

Mila's former circus owner, Tony Ratcliffe, who called her Jumbo, yesterday said even the most tame and best elephants could kill and maim people, and that could happen no matter how they were treated.

The elephant went to the zoo in 2009 from the Weber Bros Circus after she was handed over to the SPCA.

"Many reasons can be found for accidents and elephant attacks.

"I do not and will not subscribe to the theory they don't attack unless they have been mistreated," he said.

On Radio New Zealand yesterday, he rejected the suggestion the elephant had struggled to come to terms with living in the zoo after life in the circus.

He said he never had any trouble with the animal.

"My children have grown up around her ... she's been a beautiful elephant.

"She's been messed around with by people who have no knowledge of them at all," he said.
 
Tragic loss

I had the chance to meet Helen once in Australia. She seemed to be a lovely person and dedicated to her zoo and the care of the animals.

It would be a good idea for Tony Ratcliffe to just stop talking about it as he seems only to want to get his head on television without thought for Helen's friends and family. Now is not the time for his opinions.
 
a different account of what happened during the incident:
Elephant was following circus order: witness - National - NZ Herald News
A witness to the fatal accident at Franklin Zoo says the elephant was triggered to kneel down, crushing her keeper, by what appeared to be a misinterpreted circus command: "down".

"Put me down, Mila," the keeper, Dr Helen Schofield, was heard saying as she patted the elephant's head.

Mila obeyed by going down on her knees - crushing Dr Schofield.

"The elephant didn't attack the lady. The elephant was in a circus mode. It was following commands," said the zoo visitor, who did not want to be named.

He said the elephant had seemed to him to have acted as if she were performing a circus trick.

Dr Schofield, Franklin Zoo's owner and director, was killed on Anzac Day after two years' nursing the animal with the hope of getting her into an overseas sanctuary.

Authorities and animal welfare groups are now working out the future for the elephant, who was born in Africa before being taken into zoos in London and Honolulu.

She later spent 30 years in a New Zealand circus.

The witness said he wanted to dispel any impression that Mila had any problems under Dr Schofield's care.

An electric fence, which was earlier raised as the possible source of Mila's agitation on the day, was not near the pair, he said. And Dr Schofield had not run - she slowly backed away once she realised that being in the enclosure was not safe.

He did not know why the elephant picked up Dr Schofield, he said.

The witness, for whom English is a second language, gave a clarifying statement to police about what happened.

Auckland Zoo senior vet Richard Jakob-Hoff said elephants were intelligent animals with all the range of emotions that people had.

But their sheer size made them dangerous, and Auckland Zoo's female elephant, Burma, had been taught her instructions in Hindi to avoid inadvertent commands, Dr Jakob-Hoff said.

Mila was born in the wild in 1973, but at nine months she was taken into captivity at London Zoo. She ended up at Honolulu Zoo for a brief period before the Whirling Brothers Circus brought her to New Zealand in 1978.

Her then-owner, Tony Ratcliffe, said Mila had been bullied by another elephant in Honolulu.

Despite receiving criticism from animal activist groups, Mr Ratcliffe recalls positively the elephant's 30 years' touring with the circus under her stage name Jumbo.

When Mila was retired Mr Ratcliffe tried to get Mila into a zoo here or in Australia but could not find a space.

So she spent two years with another circus as a "walk-on" special guest - without performing tricks - before Dr Schofield was able to take her into Franklin Zoo in late 2009.
Dr Schofield bought the zoo in 2005 when it was in need of a new owner and she saw its animals wanting for better care.

She told Radio New Zealand two years ago that Mr Ratcliffe had been "fantastic" during Mila's transition to the Franklin Zoo.

The elephant was described as "jumpy" when she arrived but is said to have become pacified under Dr Schofield's care.

Auckland Zoo staff are helping care for Mila, while the SPCA and the Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries are trying to work out her future.

Dr Schofield had been in talks with California-based sanctuary Paws, which said Mila was still welcome.
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That's one man's interpretation - but I wonder if another command meant "pull me back by my feet and pick me up in your trunk"? And did another mean that Mila should 'brush' her trunk against the keeper? I don't mean to be flippant or disrespectful but it seems another case of the media taking one bystander's perspective and turning it into fact.

Hopefully the investigation will get to the bottom of this but, knowing DoL investigations, I think it rather unlikely.
 
Unfortunately Tony Ratcliffe is going to get airtime from people like Campbell, but Ratcliffe has always been a controversial character and thrives on conflict.

My experience with captive elephants is nil, the closest I have been to one was to Mila while at Franklin, where I met Dr Schofield. Seeing the elephant enclosure built there I was surprised to hear of the incident, until it came out that Dr Schofield had actually gone inside.

There is a rule amongst guides and animal watchers in Africa, "Whatever you do, don't run" It can be a hard rule to follow when there is several tons of thundering angry elephant or a speeding lion bearing down on you, but unless you are 100% sure of being able to escape to a safe place running will do you no good. Better to stand your ground and face the threat, running will only provoke them into chasing you and since almost everything in the animal kingdom can outrun us, if they chase you they will catch you.

Elephants are immensely strong beasts, they can tip over a mini bus or Landrover full of people with ease, push down trees with a trunk circumference of two meters, and kill full grown rhinos by breaking their backs. Not animals to take any chances with.
 
Cadders said:
That's one man's interpretation - but I wonder if another command meant "pull me back by my feet and pick me up in your trunk"? And did another mean that Mila should 'brush' her trunk against the keeper? I don't mean to be flippant or disrespectful but it seems another case of the media taking one bystander's perspective and turning it into fact.

Hopefully the investigation will get to the bottom of this but, knowing DoL investigations, I think it rather unlikely.
Click to expand...

You're a bit cynical about DOL, but also probably spot on. Maybe if they actually got someone who knew about captive elephants to do the investigation it might be better, but it's more likely to be someone who investigates domestic livestock accidents.

The outcome is easily guessed anyway, they will forbid keepers from going in with elephants and since the victim was the zoo operator any fine or penalty is pointless.
 
Whatever else you may say about Tony Ratcliffe, he is the only person that can handle that elephant. When we spent a week looking after her in Helensville after she had been surrendered, she was as vicious as anything and there was no way we could get her chain off. The faeces was building up and the fly problem made matters worse. I called Tony down and he just talked to the elephant, walked right in, unchained her and took her for a walk. I could stand next to her, examine her and do anything - she was not bothered. The moment Tony walked away, once again she became aggressive and just plain nasty.

About DoL - I used to work for that institution for 8 months. I was aware of their involvement with Zion Wildlife Gardens before and after the fatality. I speak with total confidence when I voice my concern that their actions may be below average at best. They were made aware, by me, prior to Dalu's death that it was an inevitability. The Inspector who ignored my warnings and all but told me to butt out of it was the same one that investigated the death and prosecuted Mrs Busch.
 
Cadders said:
That's one man's interpretation - but I wonder if another command meant "pull me back by my feet and pick me up in your trunk"? And did another mean that Mila should 'brush' her trunk against the keeper? I don't mean to be flippant or disrespectful but it seems another case of the media taking one bystander's perspective and turning it into fact.
Click to expand...
nothing was "turned into a fact" in the article. It was merely presenting another account of the situation, in the words of one of the witnesses.
 
It has been interesting to read so many people's opinions on this awful tragedy.

We spent time in February with both Helen and with Tony Ratcliffe and I have since spoken by phone with Tony following this incident.

Cadders and ptig are both spot on in their comments.

Tony is the only person in the world who can work Jumbo. When he heard of the attack he went immediately to the zoo to offer his assistance. Remember, at that time it was thought that Helen's body was still with the elephant. He was certainly very emotional about what had happened and he and Helen could never be described as friends. However, his intention was to defuse the situation as it was thought to exist and thereby prevent any further harm coming to anybody or to Jumbo. I thank cadders for his description of what Tony did at Helensville - nobody has ever acknowleged that publicly.

But, now that Tony has had his say he really should leave any further comments until the inquest.

As indeed should people like the SPCA and SAFE representatives. For Kerridge to claim that the elephant was being nursed back to health is untruthful. Helen herself said publicly in the Franklin News on Jumbo's arrival that "we have a healthy elephant here". In the early days, following her arrival at Franklin, there were lots of comments on the FZ website about how calmly she accepted the noises and activities of machinery building her barn. She didn't learn to be calm just by coming to Franklin - she was already well conditioned to such activities by her years in the circus.

However, as time went by, Jumbo became too valuable to the anti-trained animal lobby for the truth to be allowed to spoil a good sob story. Myths were invented about her circus days and eventually, following a recent TV article, the lawyers had to be called in. Any further comments about that ongoing action could possibly be sub-judice.

We had a great respect for Helen and her compassion and were saddened to hear her public talk at the zoo about Jumbo - so much of it just was not true. We were also horrified to see the risks that she unknowingly took when in the enclosure with Jumbo and her misinterpretation of some of the elephant's actions. "Ignorance" is not too strong a word to use - well meaning though it certainly was.

This whole tragedy would have been avoided if Jumbo had been kept in PC.

What now for Jumbo? To send her to PAWS would be a complete waste of money and very possibly detrimental to her welfare. As we have learned from the ongoing Toronto Zoo saga, PAWS have their own, hitherto covered up, problems with TB. My own belief, which Helen did not completely deny, is that Jumbo will permanently stay at Franklin. Why else would they have spent all that money to build such an excellent elephant facility? There is no possibility of any other elephants coming to live in it. It is truly an excellent set up for keeping her in a PC situation. She has spent the greater part of her life without elephantine company so she is not going to miss them in the last years of her life - providing she can develop a lasting relationship with a human such as she had for so many years with Tony Ratcliffe.

Remember - like him or loathe him, Tony Ratcliffe worked that elephant FC all around NZ, Fiji and New Caledonia, without any incidents like this, for 30 years. That should say something.

However, realistically that is never going to happen. Someone else will have to step forward to take the place of the devoted Dr Schofield.

RIP Helen. Your passion, your commitment to your charges, your willing assistance to the rest of us will be sorely missed.
 
A well reasoned and detailed reply Steve, but I am deeply concerned that MAF and the SPCA, both of whom know nothing useful whatsoever about wild animal husbandry (before condemning this, please remember, I have worked in management roles for both bodies) should be involved in the decision making process. I cannot pretend to be among the cognoscenti vis a vis elephant sanctuaries, but I am not convinced (yet) that a sanctuary is not a viable option, albeit perhaps not PAWS.
Before having that final discussion I very much hope that zoo professionals, e.g. Peter Stroud and maybe Laurie Pond from Australia Zoo, should be involved in the decision making process and that MAF and the SPCA take a back seat.
Whatever decision is arrived at MAF can then fulfill a role by facilitating a move, if that is the decision, and the SPCA - whose fund raising capabilities number amongst their strongest attributes - could provide the money for either retiring Mila abroad, or supporting her upkeep in New Zealand. After all, unless there has been a change (and the fact that they are being involved in these talks at all assumes not) they are still the legal owners of Mila. In any event the SPCA must assume a responsibility as the one's who facilitated Mila's exit from the circus for which I always understood them to be very proud.
 
You previous two gentlemen are a tad too harsh on MAF and the SPCA. Having had some experience with both, and plenty fo experience with Govt dept workings in general, I feel confident that the MAF will carefully consider all options, take on board opinions and advice from proven international elephant experts, listen to information provided by those who actually have had first hand contact with the elephant, and at the end of the day, announce a decision which apparently will have been made by person(s) who don't know an elephant from a horse and haven't listened to any bonafide expert advice.
 
What a curious and deluded world you live in Kiwipo. Happiness is a wonderful thing and ignorance is bliss. But you base your confidence on the abilities of MAF and the SPCA on what, precisely? You are either a good corporate citizen, toeing the party line, or just incredibly naive. I qualify my comments as coming from the ex-animal welfare investigations manager for MAF and National Chief Inspector of the Royal New Zealand SPCA. And you?
 
steve and cadders well written
tony ratcliffe is mila's herd matriarch, there is another who could handle her as well as tony
it is sad to see the anti circus brigade not allow an easier transition from one style of life to another for trained animals
i worry that the easy way out for authorities will be to put mila down and reasons will be found to back it up
 
Hey Kiwipo - don't mean to be aggressive but I have had my fill of MAF incompetence and SPCA..well.. I'll leave it at that. Any decision will be based on financial encumbrance and risk aversion (to the Ministry - not to people or animal welfare).
 
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