The Oregon Zoo stood tall for its elephant program after an animal rights group listed the institution as one of the worst zoos in the country for the pachyderms.

The group In Defense of Animals ranked the Oregon Zoo third in a list of “Ten worst zoos for elephants” in 2007.

The chief complaint was about chronic foot disorders, suffered by five of the six elephants at the zoo, according to the report.

Oregon Zoo

Pet the elephant

But Oregon Zoo officials were quick to point to their success rate with the elephant program and point out descrepancies in the report.

The group blamed elephant spaces that are too confined, and unnatural surfaces. Disease of the foot can be deadly in elephants, leading to chronic infections and bone problems, the group said.

One elephant, Pet, died in 2006 from such complications.

Oregon Zoo spokesman Bill LaMarche said the flooring complaint was “flat wrong,” and that elephants at the zoo walk on two inches of recycled rubberized flooring indoors, and the outdoor yards have natural soft sand and grass.

But, Suzanne Roy of IDA countered that the rubberized floors were still an "unnatural" surface, and that was an inadequate condition that could lead to the elephants foot problems.

LaMarche also said that Pet the elephant had a leg deformity her whole life and lived to be 51 years old. He said without the zoo’s elephant care program she would have died much younger in the wild.

The IDA report was “chock full of inaccurate, misleading info taken from our records,” LaMarche said. Vets claimed much of the information was taken out of context.

  Oregon Zoo elephants work out

“Their strategy is to take an (animal’s) death and steal the spotlight to what their cause is -- to rid zoos of elephants,” and eventually animals at zoos entirely,” according to LaMarche.

“(The list) is an attempt to encourage these and other zoos to resolve in 2007 to put the physical and psychological needs of elephants before business interests and end the needless suffering of elephants in zoos," according to Elliot M. Katz, President of IDA.

Also responding to the report was Aquarium and Zoo Association Executive Director Kristin Vehrs.

"We have compelling data to show that AZA's mandatory standards for elephant care and management are working. The facts are indisputable. The elephant population in AZA-accredited zoos is healthy."

Vehrs said “anti-zoo extremists” should call off their "orchestrated attacks against zoos."

"They skirt the issues," Roy said. "The problem is (solutions are ) not working. The elephants are still suffering."

The top two offenders named by IDA were the Anchorage Zoo and Marine World in Vallejo, California.