Jamie Dorgan, the Greater Vancouver Zoo's Animal Manager, has said that time is a factor in deciding to move (or is it sell?) Tina to the Bowmanville, Ontario Zoo. He said that getting permits to move Tina to the sanctuary in Tennessee could take a year, but it is well-known that six weeks is the usual time.

Dorgan said another consideration is distance, but it would take 30 hours to get to the Tennessee sanctuary (in it's special, chain-free transport) but 40 hours to get to Bowmanville.

Dorgan has said that the poor state of Tina's feet, caused by the GVZ keeping her in a small, hard-surfaced pen for over 30 years, is the reason the GVZ is sending her away, making the owners of this business sound humane, but they are sending her to Bowmanville, where, according to the Carol Buckley, the director of the Tennessee Sanctuary, Bowmanville recently euthanized an elephant because of foot disease.

In Bowmanville, elephants have to spend up to six months a year in barns because of the cold. In Bowmanville, Asian and African elephants are mixed, which is known health risk. In Bowmanville, Tina will be used to make money, just as she has all her life, by being hired out to movies (which have appalling reputations for animal abuse) and for rides (Yes, parents still teach their children animal-abuse and still keep animal-abusers in business this way).

Bowmanville uses electric prods and chains.

Yet, listening to Michael Hackenberger, the Bowmanville Zoo director, made it sound like he only had Tina's interests at heart in an interview this morning on CBC radio.

You can't stop money-grubbers with pleas to their better instincts - they have none. That applies to the Bowmanville Zoo and Misters Lee, Kim, and Park who own the Greater Vancouver Zoo and who "own" Tina, body and soul.

Watch for future posts to see how you can still try to stop this.