Dear wOw:   

Some of you have written about my involvement recently in advocating for a special-needs elephant named Jenny who now resides at the Dallas Zoo in Texas. Those of us actively working on Jenny’s behalf have got to work fast as the zoo officials plan to move Jenny on October 1st to a drive-through safari park in Mexico where, again, she’ll be in far too little space and without companionship. Jenny will be subjected to more of the trauma that has contributed to and helped create her troubled history. There are many of us advocating to have Jenny sent to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

I’ve always been fascinated by elephants and the sensitivity they seem to show to their environment and to their elephant families. Elephants in captivity became more urgent to me because of a situation similar to Jenny’s that we have here at the Los Angeles Zoo. I began learning more about elephants in these stressful habitats and I was motivated to write a letter to our mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, urging the closing of our elephant exhibit and the removal of the elephants there to one of the elephant sanctuaries in the United States. Several zoos around the country have already closed their elephant exhibits as officials became aware that there is not enough room in zoos to provide a decent life for elephants — as these animals are simply too big! In most cases, these officials have had the compassion to send these elephants to sanctuaries rather than to other zoos or exhibits.

Jenny at the Dallas Zoo is a special-needs elephant who needs the affectionate understanding, healing and rehab available at the Elephant
Sanctuary in Tennessee. The Sanctuary has more than 2,000 acres — and 300 acres for the elephants alone. And Jenny will have the desperately needed companionship of other African elephants. Elephants are extremely social and suffer deep depression without kinship with other elephants.

Log on to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and you can view their "Elecam." 

At a second sanctuary in northern California, Performing Animals Welfare Society (PAWS), you can view videos showing the elephants there relating to one another with deep affection. Comparing these images with those of elephants chained, isolated and without exercise to prevent debilitating joint disease was illuminating for me.

The case of Jenny is a simple one: The Tennessee Sanctuary offers her healing and peace. The Elephant Sanctuary will take Jenny if Dallas will let her come. The caregivers there want her and they have room for her. The facility in Mexico is a drive-through safari open day and night with cars constantly present. Jenny is completely afraid of motor vehicles and, on top of it all, she will have barely an acre of land on which to "roam" — or less than two percent of the room she would have at the Elephant Sanctuary.

As Dr. Joyce Poole, who is regarded by many as the world’s leading authority on elephants recently wrote, “It is troubling that the Dallas Zoo would even consider sending this particular elephant (Jenny) to a drive-through attraction when the Elephant Sanctuary, a facility recognized worldwide for its expertise in the rehabilitation of troubled and ailing elephants, is willing to take Jenny. The Sanctuary has received elephants from many AZA-accredited zoos.”

Jenny is 32 years old; she has spent 22 of those years on exhibit in the Dallas Zoo. The Sanctuary offers her a place, finally, to live out what’s left of her life in a way that can bring her companionship and health. Jenny deserves a break. 

If you are interested in learning more about Jenny and how to advocate for her, go to: www.concernedcitizensforjenny.net.

Here, also, is a link to Tim Cushan’s website. He is a photographer who captures the true majesty of these enormous creatures:
www.timcushanphoto.com/index.html.

—Lily