Concerned Citizens for Jenny Ask for Coordination & Support to Save Jenny

[Guest guest]

This is just plain wrong. Once she is in Mexico, we will have no ability to track her or help her or even to know that she needs help. I will publish an action plan to help Jenny ASAP (this week). In the interim, please telephone the Dallas mayor to urge Dallas to transfer Jenny to a USA Sanctuary.Jenny needs all our support so please call me if you have questions or want to discuss how you may help. I urge everyone to participate in a coordinated and polite effort with Concerned Citizens for Jenny. Contact me at home phone for additional information (972 578 0370) or to discuss the plan.Thank you so much.Margaret Chair, Concerned Citizens for Jennyhome 972 578

0370ttp://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/DN-jenny_25met.ART.State.Edition1.38f018f.htmlDallas Zoo's lone elephant to be moved to wildlife refuge in Mexico

09:25 AM CDT on Wednesday, June 25, 2008

By JOANNA CATTANACH / The Dallas Morning News jcattanach

 

The Dallas Zoo will move

its lone elephant to a wildlife park in Mexico this fall, zoo officials

announced Tuesday. JIM MAHONEY/DMN

Jenny is the Dallas Zoo's last elephant. The elephant exhibit will be

converted into an expanded giraffe exhibit when Jenny moves to a Mexico

wildlife park.

Jenny, the 31-year-old, 11,000-pound African elephant, will move to the

Africam Safari Park, a 617-acre forested wildlife park 80 miles

southeast of Mexico City, zoo officials said. She will share a 4.9-acre

elephant exhibit with one male and two female elephants.

"We are confident that Africam Safari Park and its exemplary elephant

program will be a great move for Jenny," Gregg Hudson, the zoo's

executive director, said in a prepared statement. There

has been much speculation about Jenny's future since her companion,

KeKe, 39, died in May of congestive heart failure. Elephants are

herding animals that seek companionship. Animal activists

had requested Jenny be moved to a sanctuary to ensure mental and

physical well-being. But they said Tuesday they didn't like the one the

zoo picked for Jenny, a Dallas Zoo fixture for 22 years.

"Once these animals go out of the country, it's very difficult to

ensure they're going to get the care that they need," said Lisa Wathne,

a national spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of

Animals. Catherine Doyle, campaign director with

California-based In Defense of Animals, said the group was appalled

about the move "to an unknown facility where she will not be protected

by U.S. Animal Welfare Act law." Africam Safari Park is

accredited with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and is subject to

the same inspection process as zoos in North America, Dallas Zoo

officials said. Ms. Doyle and Margaret Morin of the

Dallas-based Concerned Citizens for Jenny were scheduled to meet with

City Council members Tuesday afternoon to discuss Jenny's future.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that they had this press conference

today," said Ms. Morin, who said her group has more than 50 members.

Ms. Morin and other groups plan to oppose Jenny's move.

"The citizens of Dallas own Jenny," she said. "This should not be a

unilateral decision on the part of the zoo." Sean Greene,

the zoo's community relations director, said zoo officials have spent

the last month deciding what's best for Jenny. "These

organizations aren't about elephants," Mr. Greene said of the animal

activists protesting Jenny's move. "They don't want zoos, period."

The decision was not prompted by protests, said Chuck Siegel, the zoo's

deputy director for animal management. "I would never

make a decision about the welfare of an animal based on those sorts of

concerns," said Mr. Siegel, who has visited Africam Safari Park. It's a fantastic facility," he said.

Zoo officials said Jenny is doing "great" since KeKe's death. She is

eating well and is participating in regular enrichment and training

programs. They said that Jenny is healthy enough to

travel but that they will wait until the fall to move her so that she

can avoid traveling in the summer heat. She will receive a pre-travel

physical. Zoo staff also will be preparing Jenny for her

move by helping to familiarize her with the crate that will carry her

to Mexico. The Dallas Zoo expects to acquire a giraffe in

the coming months and convert its elephant exhibit into an expanded

giraffe habitat that will open next spring. "Elephants will be at the Dallas Zoo," Mr. Greene said. "How soon has yet to be determined."