To everyone on wOw who has supported Jenny the elephant at the Dallas Zoo: Today I received the following e-mail from Margaret Morin who heads up Concerned Citizens for Jenny in Dallas. Click here to see a video of Jenny at the zoo.

Below the e-mail from Margaret is an unsolicited e-mail sent to me from a Dallas citizen, whom I have never met (cross posted with her permission). This is the tenure of the communication I’m now receiving about Jenny, who is in obvious distress at the Dallas Zoo. We know from video shot mid-August that she is repetitively swaying, a sign of stress in elephants.

-Lily

Redouble your efforts on her behalf, please. Contact the Dallas Mayor and the City Council right away and often. Urge them to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. Don’t stop until they do the right thing.

-Margaret

You can find all the contact info on the updated CCFJ webpage: www.concernedcitizensforjenny.net>>

THE UNSOLICITED LETTER FROM A DALLAS CITIZEN:

From: Tiffany
Subject: Concern for Jenny the Elephant and other zoo animal’s lack of space and social care
To: info@dalzoo.org
Date: Saturday, August 30, 2008, 8:56 PM

Hello,
I’m writing because my boyfriend and I visited the Dallas Zoo today. We were looking forward to the trip but left utterly depressed.

It was like seeing human beings kept in an elevator space for the remainder of their life.

We were horrified by the lack of space and dismal conditions for so many of the animals. Jenny the Elephant was among the best examples of this. Her confines are atrociously small for such a large and sensitive animal. We saw animal after animal in this condition.
A lama like animal was standing in it’s water pool (only a few feet by a few feet) and would not move. It was obviously incredibly hot and miserable. Lacking options, it just stood there as it’s only option. Animal after animal, lacked space and adequate confines to be content in any capacity.

I was just completely devastated. I went hoping for a positive experience and left committed to help the Concerned Citizens for Jenny, to try to get her to Tennessee.

I was embarrassed for Dallas today. I was embarrassed to be a Dallas resident.

Jenny is in obvious pain. She was butting her head into the wires of her horribly, inexcusably small space during our visit. She’s unhappy. She deserves better.

I can not imagine how the Dallas Zoo or the city of Dallas has justified this horrible treatment of such a beautiful animal. And an animal who has already been traumatized enough.

The Dallas Zoo should release all of their inadequately housed animals immediately.

There’s no other excuse or option. The Zoo would make a wonderful park. It’s nicely designed and has very attractive greenery.

It’s painfully inadequate spaces for animals though, are a complete embarrassment to the city of Dallas and all of it’s residents.

This zoo is only a trauma storage for animals, not any kind of sanctuary.

I will be collecting the contacts for city council and sending this to them as well.

In sadness for your animals,
Tiffany

—————————— 

What you can do: 

1.  Contact the Dallas Mayor
Repeatedly call, fax, and email the mayor, whether or not you live in Dallas.  Politely but firmly urge him to retire Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary.  Civilly insist that he intervene in the Zoo’s decision to keep her in Dallas.

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

2.  Contact Dallas City Council

If you live in Dallas, contact your city council person and urge her or him to send Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. 

Contact your city council person at:  (214) 670-5111
Or go to:  http://www.dallascityhall.com/government/government.html