Nat'l E-News Urges Action for Jenny: Dallas' lone elephant needs our help -7/5/08

[Guest guest]

The

urgent plight of Jenny, the lone elephant at the Dallas zoo, has been

in the news this last week. Jenny has had a rough life, including years

of solitary confinement. Her plight improved somewhat an elephant named

Keke came to live with her, but Keke died over two months ago.The

good news is that rather than replace Keke, the Dallas Zoo has decided

to close its elephant exhibit. Those new to animal advocacy may not be

sure why that is good news, as they may know little of the suffering of

elephants in captivity. You can learn more about it in "Thanking the

Monkey," where I cover it extensively, or from "In Defense of Animals"

(www.idausa.org) a group that does superb work in the field of animals

in entertainment. The bad news is that the zoo has decided to

send Jenny to a Safari Park in Mexico, where she will not be under USDA

regulation, and, most importantly, which currently has no other African

elephants. The wonderful Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (see

www.elephants.com ) is eager to take Jenny but the zoo has so far

refused to let her go there. The weekly Dallas Observer covered the story in detail athttp://www.dallasobserver.com/content/printVersion/1019230Check

it out, and please consider a letter to the editor in support of

sanctuary in Tennessee. The paper takes letters at

http://tinyurl.com/5rer9gThe station WFAA did an excellent and

thorough story on the issue. You can watch it on line at

http://tinyurl.com/5olo6z . You can also read the story at that link.

Please take at least a quick glance, as stations notice which stories

get the most web clicks. And most importantly, scroll down to the

bottom of the story where you can click to email reporter Jason

Whitely, and send him a quick note of thanks. Positive feedback

encourages follow-ups and similar coverage. It is vital that Jenny's

plight stays in the news.Finally,

terrific Dallas activist Margaret Morin, has asked us to please contact

the Dallas mayor. She writes: "We must convince the Mayor and the City

Council to stop this transfer to Mexico and send Jenny to an elephant

sanctuary instead. Please keep calling them until they do the right

thing by Jenny. If his office tries to direct your call to the Zoo,

please firmly advise that you want Mayor Leppert to make the decision."Even

if you have already called, please call again, as she writes: "I

learned Thursday that after we spent 10 days flooding the Dallas mayor's

office with telephone calls, his office just decided to start counting

the calls/emails on Thursday. So, we have to do it all over again! We

must convince the Mayor to send Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary before

Jenny is shipped to Mexico. The Safari Display Park in Mexico has had

elephants for more than 30 years and yet, has never recorded their

elephants in ANY elephant registry as do other legitimate zoos. This

means we will know nothing about what happens to Jenny, or any of the

other elephants, who have gone there. This is just terrifying"

Here is his contact information:Mayor Tom LeppertDallas City

Hall1500 Marilla Street, Room 5ENDallas, TX 75201-6390Main Phone: (214) 670-4054Fax: (214) 670-0646tom.leppertLast year, after years of public pressure, The Anchorage Zoo finally moved dearMaggie to the PAWS sanctuary in California.Polite

public pressure works. Activists Margaret Morin, Catherine Doyle and

others are doing great work on this issue (check out

http://www.idausa.org/news/currentnews/nr_080626.html to learn more)but they badly need our help. Let's see another happy ending here! We canhelp Jenny, and all the other elephants in captivity, as every retirement tosanctuary sets a precedent.Yours and the animals'Karen Dawn(DawnWatch is an animal advocacy media watch that looks at animal issues in themedia

and facilitates one-click responses to the relevant media outlets. You

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