Dirty job: Caring for zoo's elephants no circus

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — In the realm of dirty jobs, the zoo here has two openings that could be intensely rewarding.

Genny C and Lilac need some TLC. But the African elephants, who weigh a combined 17,000 pounds, also leave 30 pounds of poop at a pop.

The gals have been at the zoo for 35 years, and are a couple of years older than that. They're both strong enough to push around cars and agile enough with their trunks to grab food or dab a brush from paint to canvas.

"It is amazing what they can do," said Larry Sorel, director of the Seneca Park Zoo. "They can be extraordinarily gentle but then can be extraordinarily violent."

But elephants have been known to turn on people with disastrous fury, and they are the only African elephants in New York.

"We would never let a new person go in by themselves," said Sue Rey, a handler at the zoo. "Every elephant is different, so you always have to be careful."

Even handlers don't get to be all cuddly with the elephants. To become a handler takes about a year of training and includes activities that sound an awful lot like raising a dog: lots of long walks, various voice commands and baths.

Two handlers are needed to give the elephants their daily sponge bath. Rey watches over a recumbent Genny C as another handler, Jenna Bovee, scrubs the elephant.

The elephants will do just about anything for a trained handler, Bovee said, They'll lay down, sit, stand on two legs, stretch and about 60 other things.

"They can blow raspberries or shake it up," she said.

They also eat a lot: 125 pounds of food a day — lots of fruit, veggies and bagels and no peanuts, by the way.

Handlers have a few other jobs around the zoo, like caring for the lions, baboons and other animals in the Africa exhibit. They are paid hourly and make somewhere between $24,557 and $31,340 annually, according to the job posting. Work hours include nights, weekends and holidays.

But they don't need a four-year degree in zoology. Rey volunteered at the zoo after graduating from college with a degree in math.

Her overall background persuaded managers to hire her.

"You have to be fit," said Rey, who makes regular visits to a chiropractor. "It involves a lot of lifting."

Some of that lifting stems from cleaning up as much as 1,300 pounds of elephant dung a day, a smell that often clings to clothes.

All of a sudden, being an elephant handler doesn't sound so glamorous, and anyone willing to pick up that much muck must really love the work.