eleblog

“Home is the elephant enclosure at the Phoenix Zoo where volunteers rolled up their sleeves as part of the company’s annual Impact Day” - Arizona Central

“Reid Park Zoo’s top artist — an African elephant — kicked off a campaign for a national volunteer day Tuesday by painting a trash can.” - The Arizona Daily Star

“The Tucson City Council will likely vote Tuesday on a city staff recommendation to keep the elephants in Tucson and expand their enclosure at Reid Park Zoo, giving them several acres of sand pits, pools, grass and a mud wallow instead of their current half-acre space.” - Arizona Daily Star

“The Tucson Zoological Society is sponsoring a glimpse at how Reid Park Zoo’s elephants, Connie and Shaba, live, work and play.” - Tucson Citizen

“The Reid Park Zoo will no longer attempt to breed its 26-year-old African elephant Shaba.” - The Arizona Star

“Connie and Shaba, the elephants at the Reid Park Zoo, have special admirers in Jeffrey Uhrig’s fifth-grade class at Bonillas Basic Curriculum Magnet School.” - Tucson Citizen

“In response to Star editorial columnist Jim Kiser’s Feb. 12 piece, quite frankly, deciding what to do with Reid Park Zoo’s elephants is not an “Enormous Dilemma,” as stated in the headline.” - Arizona Daily Star

“What’s best for Connie and Shaba? This is the primary question we should ask. More than 4,000 Tucson residents and zoo patrons have signed petitions urging the City Council to transfer the elephants at the Reid Park Zoo to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee where they will have free access to hundreds of acres of natural habitat.” - Arizona Daily Star

“People have big hearts for elephants. I say that with some authority after seeing the response to my Feb. 12 column, in which I suggested Tucson’s Reid Park Zoo should give up its two elephants, for humane and financial reasons, and concentrate instead on improving conditions for its other animals.” - Arizona Daily Star

“The recent “controversy” about elephants is being created by a handful of animal-rights activists who have strategically chosen this species as their first target in a longer-term campaign to close zoos — all zoos. They claim that seeing an animal on television is just as good as experiencing animals in an up-close-and-personal setting. The American Zoo and Aquarium Association strongly disagrees.” - Arizona Star

“Should the Reid Park Zoo keep its elephants?” - Tucson Weekly

“Ruby, Arizona’s artistic elephant, was a typical example. The Phoenix Zoo promoted its paintbrush-wielding pachyderm to worldwide celebrity before her death in 1998, a misfortune blamed on complications during the delivery of a calf. Seven years later, the zoo still runs an Internet site dedicated to Ruby’s memory and fends off complaints that her pregnancy and birthing were botched.” - The Arizona Republic