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The Center for Elephant Conservation (CEC) is a breeding farm and retirement facility for elephants in Florida, opened in 1995. The CEC is solely sponsored by Feld Entertainment, the holding company which owns Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. ==Role and location== The CEC is the largest Asian elephant gene pool outside of Southeast Asia since traditional zoos usually have, on average, only a handful of elephants. Parent company Feld Entertainment publicizes the facility as a gathering place for researchers of elephant behavior and conservation. The center loans both elephants and semen to zoos and cooperative breeding programs around the world. Between the traveling circuses and the center, the herd consists of more than 70 elephants. When the center opened, it was home to 27 elephants, including four studs and six babies. As of 2010, there were a claimed 23 births at the center, most recently a female the staff has named April. Although the facility is a largely undisturbed natural habitat in which some elephants are permitted to graze and stroll, many of the elephants at the facility are kept confined and chained in cement barns. Photos of the facility and staff training newborn elephants became public after the death of a former Conservation Center employee, Sam Haddock.〔“Declaration of Samuel Dewitt Haddock, Jr.,” August 28, 2009, http://www.ringlingbeatsanimals.com/about-whistleblower.asp, accessed May 5, 2010.〕 Outsiders are divided on what the center means for elephants, calling it, alternately, “a stark, sterile-looking place, with … little evident enrichment,” “wonderful,” “the leading elephant-breeder in the Americas,” and “elephant puppy mill.”〔Shana Alexander, ''The Astonishing Elephant'' (New York: Random House, 2000), 175; Scigliano, ''Love, War, and Circuses: The Age Old Relationship Between Elephants and Humans'' (London: Bloomsbury, 2004), 263-64.〕 In 2014, Feld Entertainment won $25.2 million in settlements from a number of animal-rights groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year legal battle over unproven allegations that Ringling circus employees mistreated elephants. The initial lawsuit was filed in 2000 by a former Ringling barn helper who was later found to have been paid at least $190,000 by the animal-rights groups that helped bring the lawsuit. The judge called him "essentially a paid plaintiff" who lacked credibility and standing to sue. The judge rejected the abuse claims following a 2009 trial.〔http://www.news4jax.com/news/ringling-bros-ending-elephant-acts/31626510〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Center for Elephant Conservation」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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