eleblog

“The new baby African elephant born two weeks ago at Walt Disney Word’s Disney’s Animal Kingdom now has a name: Tsavo (pronounced sah-vo.)” - Orlando Sentinel

“An elephant calf twice rejected by its herd and rescued by foresters died in Gorumara National Park today.” - The Telegraph

“In an effort to repopulate Majete Wildlife Park in the Lower Shire district of Chikwawa, a private firm African Parks Safari has transferred to the reserve 62 elephants from Liwonde National Park in Machinga district.” - Nyasa Times

“Walt Disney World released this photo this morning of the newborn elephant calf who was born in the herd of African elephants at Disney’s Animal Kingdom this weekend.” - Orlando Sentinel

The city of Dallas is on the verge of losing one of its valued citizens through “Extraordinary Rendition” to a foreign facility where she will be subjected to solitary confinement, social isolation, emotional stress, and public humiliation. Jenny has worked selflessly for the benefit of Dallas and its residents for the last 22 years and deserves a better fate.

Jenny, a 31 year old female African elephant has been on display at the Dallas Zoo since 1986. She was forcibly separated from her mother in Africa when she was only 2 and spent the next 7 years at a “training” facility where she was routinely chained, beaten and humiliated to modify her behavior before placing her on display. The elephant enclosure at the Dallas Zoo has always been very inadequate – elephants are highly mobile and require adequate space to roam as much as 30 or more miles each day; her enclosure was measured in square feet when it should be measured in acres.

Elephants are intelligent, social, and self aware. They require a herd to have the social interactions and friendships that are vital to their physical and emotional well being. Jenny spent many years alone and that contributed to her emotional problems that led to self-mutilating behavior which had to be controlled with medications. Her mental condition has been described as “Zoochosis” and as PTSD. Several years ago, a second female African elephant, Keke, was added to the exhibit and she and Jenny became close friends. Unfortunately, Keke passed away earlier this year and Jenny is once again alone. She is extremely depressed (yes, elephants do suffer from depression) and the zoo has determined they can no longer care for her.

Without any input from the citizens of Dallas, the zoo decided to send Jenny to an African Safari Park located in Puebla, Mexico, 80 miles southeast of Mexico City and 950 miles from Dallas. Concerned citizens in Dallas have recommended that rather than shipping her out of the country where she won’t have the protection of U.S. animal care and anti-cruelty regulations, that she be sent to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, where should would join 3 other female African elephants on 300 acres within a 2700 acre private reserve dedicated to the care of elephants rescued from zoos and circuses.

http://www.elephants.com

The zoo has refused to accept any input and remains resolute in their intention to send Jenny to the Mexican amusement park.

The zoo’s decision is wrong on many levels and their refusal to listen to the citizens of Dallas is unconscionable.

The Africam Safari Park in Puebla, Mexico is a drive-through amusement park that offers tourists the opportunity to drive their own cars through the various animal habitats. They have only 4.9 acres dedicated to their elephants which currently include 1 male and 2 female Asian elephants. Unfortunately, Asian and African elephants cannot be commingled as they have different social structures and behaviors. Worse yet, there are diseases that are harmless to African elephants while potentially fatal to Asian elephants. The bottom line is that Jenny would be alone in Mexico and all authorities in the subject agree that elephants should never be kept singly.

The idea that Jenny would be on public display and exposed to the noise, fumes, activity of cars and tour buses constantly moving through her environment represents the worst possible conditions for this sensitive creature already suffering from PTSD and depression. In contrast to this commercial exploitation, Jenny deserves the tranquility offered by The Elephant Sanctuary, with their focus on the preservation of the privacy, dignity and well being of elephants who have suffered years of mistreatment.

What can we do? Within the last several years, the zoos in Philadelphia and San Francisco have both determined that elephants cannot be humanely kept on display and have closed their elephant habitats by relocating their elephants to sanctuaries in Tennessee and California. We must join the citizens of Dallas in a public outcry against the “extraordinary rendition” of Jenny to a Mexican amusement park.

Please address your concerns and support for keeping Jenny in the U.S. and sending her to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee by emailing, calling and writing to:

The Dallas Parks and Recreation Department:

Paul D. Dyer, Department Director
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 6FN
Dallas, TX 75201
Phone: (214) 670-4100
Fax: (214) 670-3205
http://www.ci.dallas.tx.us/forms/form_pkr.htm

To Tom Leppert, Dallas Mayor at:

Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX
75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@dallascityhall.com

The following is a link to coverage by a local Dallas news report.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/wfaa080630_mo_elephant.f65c159.html

“The abandoned Aanaparambu owned by the Cochin Devaswom Board will soon attain the status of a well-designed elephant park.” - Newindpress.com

“The last elephant in the Dallas Zoo, left alone by the recent death of her companion, is being sent to a new home at a Mexican safari park. ” - UPI.com

“Jenny, the 31-year-old African elephant, will move to the Africam Safari Park, a 617-acre forested wildlife park located 80-miles southeast of Mexico City, zoo officials said today.” - Dallas Morning News

“However the lake has something else to offer. Tourists have began to arrive at the Sungai Ketiar elephant sanctuary since it was opened to the public last January 30″ - The New Straits Times Online

“Makalali Game Reserve introduced a birth control vaccine (porcine zona rellucida) to their elephant herds in May 2000 and the results have been gratifying.” - Star

“Elephant culling at the Kruger National Park is unnecessary and not a last option, the Earth organisation said on Wednesday.” - IOL

“The reason, during the coming December, they will spend three weeks in Thailand. Two of those three weeks will be as simple unpaid workers clear away the elephant dung, and maybe more important, nurse mishandled and wounded elephants.” - ScandAsia.Com

“Two wild elephants, caught after they went on a rampage at a farm in Kampung Tenang, have been transferred to Taman Negara.” - the star online

“Soldiers, rebels and villagers in Democratic Republic of Congo killed 14 elephants in as many days in Africa’s oldest national park to meet rising Chinese demand for ivory, a conservation group said on Thursday.” - Reuters.com

“The Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) along with its partner the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Assam forest department has rescued and rehabilitated 13 abandoned elephant calves in Assam. Five of these were reunited with their natal herds almost immediately after their rescue. The remaining 8 animals have been hand-raised by trained wildlife staff in the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC) based near Kaziranga National Park.” - Wildlife Extra