Thank You Lily and Bob and everyone that is working to free the Elephants..This video brought tears to my eyes. It is very simple, they should not allow the caging of these Magnificent Animals. It is not humane, it is simply wrong, a wrong that easily could be made right. At one time we did not know what captivity was doing, but we have learned what the results are, so why is this such a tough fight. It seems to be a no brainier…Born Free…Live Free…Come on America grow up and be the stewards of our planet, especially of those creatures we share this planet with…Let’s have a Bailout for these Majestic Beings…A permanent one…

Once Again, Lily has shown what a great lady she is. While she was here in Dallas, she did everything she could to bring attention to Jenny’s plight in her 1/4 acre Guantanamo at the Dallas Zoo… She is so educated on this issue, and so compassionate. Please listen to Lily and write to the zoo, to City leaders, and let them know—-zoos are no place for the largest land mammal. Poor Billy will undoubtedly follow in Gita’s painful footsteps. Help them before it is too late!

Hey Lily, It’s going to be a work-free weekend for me, so I’ll try to put my best foot forward and write something spectacular to send to the powers that be.

I would think everyone here already has read Jeffrey Masson’s When Elephants Weep, the Emotional Life of Elephants, (http://www.jeffreymasson.com/animal-books/when-elephants-weep.html). If you haven’t, please do. Thanks so much, Ms. Lily, for doing this work.

Dear Lily, Thank you for all of your help in the efforts to get Billy and Jenny the Elephants out of their zoo prisons and on to better lives in a sanctuary. Please let us all keep fighting for the zoo elephants until they are all free and happy! You are an awesome woman Lily!

Hey everyone—- here are the email addresses for L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the entire City Council. Please copy and paste into your To: field, check for extra spaces that might pop up, and fire away!!! I also noticed that L.A. has an ethics commission and I emailed them too! mayor@lacity.org , councilmember.smith@lacity.org, councilmember.huizar@lacity.org, councilmember.hahn@lacity.org, councilmember.reyes@lacity.org, councilmember.greuel@lacity.org, councilmember.zine@lacity.org, councilmember.parks@lacity.org, councilmember.perry@lacity.org, councilmember.wesson@lacity.org, councilmember.rosendahl@lacity.org, councilmember.LaBonge@lacity.org, councilmember.weiss@lacity.org, councilmember.cardenas@lacity.org, councilmember.alarcon@lacity.org, councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org ethics.commission@lacity.org

With luck, Dallas will notice how a civilized city could behave. I hope Oakland follows suit soon!

Aww look, Kathryn Joosten got involved! Was that your doing, Lily? ;-) Your [com]passionate, wise nature is indeed very influential. I’m relieved they got a VETERINARIAN in there, as well as a LAWYER. Their confirmations of the gruesome infected wounds and insane behaviors hopefully helped shed light onto the severity of the situation. No offense, but that may prevent the few nay-saying ignoramuses out there who tend to presume that when CELEBRITIES get involved in causes, they’re just “uninformed bleeding heart Hollywood liberals seeking attention,” blah blah (certainly not MY opinion; just an observation). So…I think it was wise to get these other professionals to step in. Hopefully this very informational footage has and will help change minds. The students’ overwhelming responses to Billy - once again, we can learn a LOT from the intuition and sensitivity of children. Good job on this presentation. I hope Jenny got many others to speak on her behalf like this. “The FACTS are that we should NO LONGER have elephants in zoos.” - Can I get an AMEN?! I wonder whose genius idea it was to originally place such active, large creatures as elephants in captivity. It’s traumatizing, for both the elephants and those who have to witness it. There is some BAD karma being generated here…at least I can rely on that one, tiny pseudo-glimmer of hope. (I’m responding to this as I watch, can ya tell?) Not trying to be negative but am I the only one a bit bothered by the way the press and spokespeople are essentially trivializing the entire issue by hounding Lily for blatantly NON-editorial photo-ops? I’m sure that’s what happens at any press conference such as this, I’m just not used to seeing what goes on after the cameras go off, I guess. It’s ennobling that Lily is so humble and willing to take time out of her busy schedule to give interviews for the sake of raising awareness: “If we start by not having elephants in zoos, there’d be no need to secure elephants from the wild … we can only work for our country at the moment.” - Wow Lily, YOU GO ON GIRL! You know your stuff. Good interview - you’re touching upon issues I don’t recall having learned before - I did not know that so many zoos shut down their elephant exhibits AND experienced NO DROP IN REVENUE! This is good news to me… My question is…why do children NEED to be educated about elephants? There are plenty of shows and documentaries on Animal Planet, if education is what’s at stake…which it is so obviously NOT. LILY + KATHRYN = <3! Totally random, but I recognize that fiery bluntness in Kathryn…first when she was threatening to never take her grandchildren to the zoo again, and later when she made that hilariously cruel comment about the art in the Mayor’s office. I got a feeling and just HAD to Google her and yup - she’s a fellow Sagittarius. lol What was that I head about $40million? That is a LOT of money. Is there some kind of donation campaign going on for these elephants? I don’t have the financial means to donate LARGE quantities or anything, but I have no problem donating regularly when I can. Well, my animal-lovin’ butt will never step foot into a zoo again, that’s for sure. I mean, I never cared for them much anyway - always felt like I was touring some kind of prison - but this elephant abuse and greedy agenda really seals the deal for me. It’s shocking to me that people completely ignore the souls and intellects of animals. Just because they don’t communicate as we do, that does not make them insignificant. And finally, Lily, you brought tears to my eyes the way you spoke so highly and hopefully of our new administration. You articulated it much better than I have been able to this past week and a half - Americans have certainly, FINALLY voiced their discontent and outrage toward the past eight years of damage “we” have committed against our international family. This was GREAT footage; I will repost the video on my blogs as per usual. The ears of Progress should always listen to the vocal calls of those who are humble enough to empathize with the suffering of the Littler Guys - our animals siblings are NO exception, of course! Bless you, Lily, and bless the heartening folks who establish and run those glorious elephant sanctuaries!

Thanks for the email links. I hope this crusade is successful and will in turn help Jenny.

…human cruelty being the elephant in the room. I hope this issue won’t involve too much common sense to be successful. Why couldn’t the AZA create a multi-media panoramic exhibits about elephants, if they’re so worried about children’s educational experience. The exhibit could start with Jumbo and tell visitors the story about elephants in captivity and why we no longer keep them in zoos, and show visitors elephants thriving in the wild and in sanctuaries. You could even utilize 3-D to give children and others the experience of being in the presence of these magnificent creatures. Lily could narrate. That oughta create some foot traffic.