Re:Friday, 5/16 URGENT ACTION NEEDED for Jenny/Grieving Elephant. Cross

May 19, 2008

Moderator's Note: Jenny was taken as an infant from her mother's side in the wild. I can not say with certainity that her mother was killed to capture Jenny, but such is often the case. Please feel free to send your opinion to Vegetarian Network of Dallas. I will publish it even if it runs counter to mine, which is that forcing Jenny to live a life of isolation in the Zoo is not humane, especially when a sanctuary that can provide miles in which she may roam and other elephants for company has offered to take her. In her current zoo environment, Jenny is depressed and stressed to the point that she is self-mutilating. Thanks to Barbara (see below) and others who wish to comment. Dialogue is important. Margaret

Dear friends,I would like to express my opinion to this issue.I understand all the concerns about animals in captivity and specially in zoos, but there is always BUT.Not all the situations are as black and white as they seem. Zoos also rescue or "get in" animals from different, and to me, much more unacceptable situations. I dare to compare it to other private rescue organizations. Birds, monkeys, reptiles and all sorts o exotics... you name it. The internet trade with animals get all those exotics into hands of people who knows nothing about it's care and who else will have the knowleage and resources to rehabilitte those animals.I know that at least one of the elephants in Dallas ZOO was one of those. She was sadly wild caught and took to the circus! After many abusive years she was finally taken to a zoo, rehabilitated, and treated with

respect, and cared for properly. There is 40+ years of their lives we do not know much about until little bits get released. It was quite different in 1940's when pouching animals for a zoos and private collections Hemmingway style was "in". Elephants are large animals and not everyone can take them in as a rescue. I am sure that even the rescue in Tennessee also has it's limits. We do turtle rescue and most of our calls and emails are about the infamous Red Eared Slider or Snapping turtles which grow to considerable sizes of a large dinner plate and the other to size of kiddy pool! There is no way we can take so many in. Many people's capacity is filled and their cattle ponds are full. And that's nothing to compare to large Elephant or Lion which need super special care and housing. And we do not have to go far - even cats and dogs has to be rather euthanized, because there is not enough people to adopt them and all the foster are

overloaded.Many zoos do what they can to fix what was previously done and improve the care and housing for their animals which got so unfortunately into captivity. I would not judge them so harshly. Many people, curators, and keepers work there for the love of the animals and definitely not getting rich. Many conservation project and learning about animals would not happened without the zoos and the funding. Not long time ago many zoos around the world participated in a Honk Kong turtle seizure when there were thousands of turtles confiscated from a black market meant for food and "medicine". Several organizations and volunteers went to open all those boxes filled with sick, stressed, dehydrated and crushed turtles under the pressure of others. It nearly depleted all the funds of those organizations and people who helped took a unpaid time from their work (many work for zoos too).Zoo and private orgs took them all in and build great

accommodating enclosures as close to wild habitat as they could. I visited several of those and it was amazing to see all those animals which are on brink of extinction, to be saved from such a horrible and almost certain death swimming freely, healthy, given some chance. I am not saying that all zoos are great. There are many private zoos like in the hotels In Las Vegas and other Sea Word entertainment places, which are torn in my eye. And of course Circuses too! There should be much harder regulations and requirements as how to keep animals and what animals to keep and how they were obtained. But I had an opportunity to meet amazing people in the zoos and that makes me feel much better. Thank you for reading.BarbaraDFW Turtle & Tortoise Clubwww.dfwttc.orghttp://pets.DFWTurtleandTortoiseClub/- - -Support Our Turtle Clubwww.petisnotarock.comGet Your Turtle Club T-shirts &

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