The urgent plight of Jenny, the lone elephant at the Dallas zoo, has been in the news this last week. Jenny has had a rough life, including years of solitary confinement. Her plight improved somewhat an elephant named Keke came to live with her, but Keke died over a month ago. The good news is that rather than replace Keke, the Dallas Zoo has decided to close its elephant exhibit. Those new to animal advocacy may not be sure why that is good news, as they may know little of the suffering of elephants in captivity. You can learn more about it in "Thanking the Monkey," where I cover it extensively, or from "In Defense of Animals" (www.idausa.org) a group that does superb work in the field of animals in entertainment. The bad news is that the zoo has decided to send Jenny to a Safari Park in Mexico, where she will not be under USDA regulation, and, most importantly, which currently has no other African elephants. The wonderful Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (see www.elephants.com ) is eager to take Jenny but the zoo has so far refused to let her go there.
The weekly Dallas Observer covered the story in detail at http://www.dallasobserver.com/content/printVersion/1019230
Check it out, and please consider a letter to the editor in support of sanctuary in Tennessee. The paper takes letters at http://tinyurl.com/5rer9g
The station WFAA did an excellent and thorough story on the issue. You can watch it on line at http://tinyurl.com/5olo6z . You can also read the story at that link. Please take at least a quick glance, as stations notice which stories get the most web clicks. And most importantly, scroll down to the bottom of the story where you can click to email reporter Jason Whitely, and send him a quick note of thanks. Positive feedback encourages follow-ups and similar coverage. It is vital that Jenny's plight stays in the news.
Finally, terrific Dallas activist Margaret Morin, has asked us to please contact the Dallas mayor. She writes:
"We must convince the Mayor and the City Council to stop this transfer to Mexico and send Jenny to an elephant sanctuary instead. Please keep calling them until they do the right thing by Jenny. If his office tries to direct your call to the Zoo, please firmly advise that you want Mayor Leppert to make the decision."
Even if you have already called, please call again, as she writes: "I learned Friday that after we spent 10 days flooding the Dallas mayor's office with telephone calls, his office just decided to start counting the calls/emails on Friday. So, we have to do it all over again! Anything you can do to help before this becomes old news will be much appreciated."
Here is his contact information:
Mayor Tom Leppert
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
Last year, after years of public pressure, The Anchorage Zoo finally moved dear Maggie to the PAWS sanctuary in California. Polite public pressure works. Activists Margaret Morin, Catherine Doyle and others are doing great work on this issue
(check out http://www.idausa.org/news/currentnews/nr_080626.html to learn more) but they badly need our help. Let's see another happy ending here! We can help Jenny, and all the other elephants in captivity, as every retirement to sanctuary sets a precedent.
Yours and the animals'
Karen Dawn
(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in the media and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You can learn more about it, and sign up for alerts at http://www.DawnWatch.com. You may forward or reprint DawnWatch alerts if you do so unedited -- leave DawnWatch in the title and include this parenthesized tag line. If somebody forwards DawnWatch alerts to you, which you enjoy, please help the list grow by signing up. It is free.)
Please go to www.ThankingtheMonkey.com to read reviews of Karen Dawn's new book, "Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way we Treat Animals" and watch the fun celebrity studded promo video.