Dear wOw Womyn:

Thanks to all you who have shown interest in this issue of elephants being kept in the inadequate confinement of zoos. I’m posting an update on two elephants: Jenny at the Dallas Zoo and Billy at the Los Angeles Zoo. I’m also posting a video from the unveiling in Los Angeles of one of two billboards erected to bring attention to Billy’s plight. Renowned conservationist Will Travers flew from England to speak at this press conference. There’s a lot of good and persuasive information about elephants in zoos versus sanctuaries.

GROUNDBREAKING STUDY

In December, 2008, a groundbreaking study in the esteemed journal Science found that zoos may be the least safe place in the world for elephants. The study of 4,500 elephants concluded that elephants in the wild live up to three times longer than in zoos, even though elephants in zoos live predator-free and receive regular veterinary care and a steady source of food. Time magazine was so taken with the study that its December, 2008, issue featured an article titled, “Free Dumbo! Zoos Are Bad for Elephants.” 

The Time article explored the sad plight of the world’s largest land mammal when confined in zoos and further remarked, “Zookeepers and policymakers who aren’t moved by all this suffering might instead be convinced by the simple fact that it costs a fortune to keep elephants so miserable. In the past ten years, zoos have spent or committed to spend about $500 million to build or upgrade enclosures designed to improve the lives of 250 animals — but nothing so far suggests that does much to improve captive elephants’ health or longevity. In Kenya, on the other hand, the wildlife service has an annual budget of just $20 million to look after tens of thousands of elephants. What’s more, while Asian elephants remain in jeopardy — with only about 60,000 of them left — cost-effective wildlife-protection programs have allowed the African elephant population to rebound to a robust 500,000. "African elephants are a conservation success story," says Georgia Mason, behavioral biologist and co-author of the study in a Time interview. That’s true enough of much of the free population; not so much for the detainees.”

Now, to two specific elephants, spotlighted here but representative and typical of hundreds of elephants living in zoos in the United States …

JENNY THE ELEPHANT AT THE DALLAS ZOO

It’s been a while since I’ve sent an update on Jenny the elephant at the Dallas Zoo. As many of you may know, at the time I began advocating for Jenny, the Dallas Zoo was planning to send her to Africam, a drive-through exhibit in Mexico. Because Jenny has suffered severe physical and psychological illnesses during her 22 years living on about one quarter of an acre at the Dallas Zoo, Concerned Citizens for Jenny and other activists in Dallas and around the country (including me) had been working to get Jenny sent to the Tennessee Elephant Sanctuary (TES), where Jenny would have a chance to heal from the misery she’d suffered while living in the confinement of a zoo.

The Zoo’s P.R. and that of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the industry trade group for zoos, were adamant that Africam would provide the best care for Jenny and that her care would be carefully monitored by the zoo. However, when Concerned Citizens announced a press conference to release a copy of the less-than-favorable contract between the zoo and the exhibit in Mexico in which the Dallas Zoo absolved Africam of any responsibility for Jenny’s safety or life, the Zoo suddenly and preemptively held their own press conference announcing that they’d decided Jenny was best kept at "home" with plans to introduce her into a larger habitat planned for opening in 2010. And that is where Jenny and her situation stand today — literally — on the same quarter-acre.