Linda, Did you ever hear anything from the Irwin family/production company?

LILY- Are our calls and letters making any difference? Serena- hey you cutie….nice pic! I finally wrote about the most famous person I’ve ever met and guess who it is?

Thank you, Lily!

I’ll tell you all why I care so much about the quality of Jenny’s future. Because if she’d had a normal life, Jenny would never have ended up in a zoo. Because people have been making decisions for Jenny that have little to do with her best interests. Because Jenny is an elephant, one of the most magnificant animals on earth, and not a curiousity. Because we have a responsibility to advocate for Jenny and to listen to the voices of elephant experts who tell us she needs to be at the Sanctuary. My heart goes out to Jenny and to all elephants who are captive. It just isn’t right.

“Jenny” addessed City Council this week. I did the speaking. Read her first line, and see how ironic it is that half the City Council members had either left their seats, or were chatting during the speech… Jenny’s speech: The RUMBLINGS of an elephant in distress are often at frequencies too low for humans to hear. I speak for JENNY who would tell her story if she could: I am the African Elephant you call Jenny. We elephants have very long memories. I remember being surrounded by my family, and being nursed by my Mother. I remember long walks, taking baths and rolling in the mud. I would have stayed with my family FOREVER, and continued to nurse for THREE more years, but when I was two, the humans came. There were loud noises. BLOOD. My MAMA fell down. I was pulled away from my family, and from my African home. FOREVER. I arrived at a place where a man made me do strange things to entertain people. When I didn’t do what he wanted, he used sharp hooks in my sensitive skin, he beat me with heavy sticks and he chained my feet. After seven years of this, the man DONATED me to the Dallas Zoo where I had a friend, Moja, to keep me company. She was my world. But one morning I woke up and Moja was dead. I screamed and screamed and tried to reach out to touch her with my trunk…but I was chained just out of her reach. I NEVER have felt the same again. When I saw her dead, I flashed back to my MAMA bleeding on the ground. Soon they brought in young Vasha, who I detested. I tried to hurt her with my tusks. I got so upset, I banged my head against the wall, and even gored my OWN leg with my tusk. They wondered how to control my anger and depression. For over four years, the zookeepers used a strong tranquilizer to control my anger and depression until the USDA advised the zoo to wean me off of it. Then they sent Vasha away and Keke came to share my space. I liked her. We stayed together until last May when I sensed something was very wrong with Keke. She sometimes ate rocks in boredom. I was so afraid I’d lose another friend. I became agitated and broke some cables in the enclosure with my head. They tranquilized me again. Keke was euthanized when her heart failed, I broke more cables with my head. For 22 years I have been kept in one small enclosure with hard ground that gives me abscesses for which I endure treatments so painful my knees buckle. I am not at peace. I am on display. Children scream at me, and there are loud noises and I sway and I flash back to when the humans came and my MAMA went down bleeding. I’ve heard that they will bring me another elephant…but I can’t say that I am ready to share this small space again. ALSO, I hear they will be doing construction —-and the noise will AGAIN remind me of the sounds that happened when my Mama fell… PLEASE allow me to retire from this stress NOW. My family is gone. I can never go home again, but there IS a peaceful 300 Acre place, less than a day away, with special people and three elephants who can join me—- or keep their distance if that seems better. It is called THE ELEPHANT SANCTUARY in TENNESSEE. and THAT is where I will find the peace I lost when I was two years old.

Seeing the footage of just how stunningly vast the sanctuary is, and being able to visually compare it to the sucktastic prison - I mean, “ZOO” - makes me all the more baffled and outraged that it’s even being QUESTIONED where Jenny belongs! I still say a fundraiser should be put into order here… Also, sort of off-topic, but who else here squeals like a deranged fool whenever they see baby elephants?! Makes me want to commit “grand theft animal”…then, of course, I remember how enormous they grow up to be. I have a pretty big back yard but not THAT big! Heh. Anyway, thanks for the video, Lily. I will repost it on MySpace and wherever. Every time I watch Jenny sway like that…I would think that disturbingly heartbreaking image alone is enough to get people involved!

Lily- Thanks for the PSA. It is great. NBC just called me for an interview about Jenny’s new song and myspace page. I told them about your PSA and forwarded it to them. I think they will be using it tonight along with the song story. Good timing!!!