How does raising an elephant in Portland propagate the species? I'm no expert but I guess the new baby can never return to the wild, so essentially he is never going to be free to live his life. He will be a lab rat basically. I wonder how much concern for his well being there will be in 5 years or farther down the road when he is not quite as cute as he is now.
I don't doubt the handlers love the animals, but doesn't every animal deserve to be free, even if a human loves it? Does Portland really need elephants? Is this really the weather an elephant needs? There are so many reasons why it is unfair to the exotic animals to put them here.

The better question is why do we have these amazing animals incarcerated in the first place? In this day of internet and available video everywhere, there is almost no need to lock up otherwise law abiding animals. I am not a PETA person, nor animal liberation, but this is an intelligent mammal living in a few city lots with lots of iron bars and strange people to see yet bond only with captors. Better hope there is no reincarnation. Free the elephants and zoo animals and then tell me how their quality of life is decreased.