Born Free Travers Advocates for Jenny 9/15/08 @ Dallas Zoo

September 12, 2008

International elephant advocate lobbies for Jenny’s release to sanctuary

Respected international animal advocate and conservationist, Will Travers, will be holding a press conference to lobby city and zoo leaders for Jenny the elephant’s release to The Elephant Sanctuary.

WHO: Will Travers, son of Born Free movie actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, CEO of Born Free USA and the Born Free Foundation (UK).

Since 1996, Travers has been President of the Species Survival Network, an international coalition of organizations committed to the promotion, enhancement, and strict enforcement of the United Nations' Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Travers is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical

Society and a member of the IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Reintroduction Specialist Group.

Travers will be joined by Margaret Morin, head of Dallas-based advocacy group Concerned Citizens for Jenny.

WHEN: Monday, September 15th, 11:30 a.m.

WHERE: Dallas Zoo, North Lawn (off of I-35), in front of the giraffe statue

“Born Free USA is calling on the Dallas Zoo to put Jenny’s needs first,” says Travers. “In these challenging economic times, Dallas residents surely don’t want to funds diverted to a multi-million dollar elephant house—a white elephant if ever there was one—when a genuinely more humane solution, that reflects the very real concerns they quite rightly have for animal welfare, already exists. That solution is The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.”

“The time has come to give Jenny a peaceful retirement,” adds Travers. “Sending her to The Elephant Sanctuary would teach people about real elephant conservation and the threats elephants face both in captivity and in the wild. It would demonstrate, as closely as is possible in America, what life for an elephant should really be like. This is not the time for stubbornness; it’s a time for generosity, for altruism, for change. And the beneficiary of our collective altruism should be Jenny, the elephant currently languishing at the Dallas Zoo.”

“We have consistently advocated for Jenny’s retirement to The Elephant Sanctuary since KeKe’s death, while the Dallas Zoo seems to have no consistent or clear plan to provide for her welfare,” says Margaret Morin, Founder of Concerned Citizens for Jenny. “First, the Zoo said it was keeping Jenny in Dallas. Then, it planned to ship her to a “drive-thru” tourist attraction in Mexico. Now, it is back to keeping her at the Zoo."

"The Zoo plans to let Jenny continue to eke out a miserable life in an antiquated, tiny and barren enclosure while taxpayers help fund a habitat that may or may not be suited to her needs is built at some undefined point in the future, probably years from now” adds Morin. “This is unacceptable when a home at a celebrated Sanctuary exists for her NOW. The Zoo has steadfastly refused to explain its logic—the citizens of Dallas deserve a full accounting of the Zoo’s decisions and capricious disregard for Jenny’s welfare.”

Born Free USA united with Animal Protection Institute is a national non-profit animal advocacy organization working to conserve and protect wildlife in the U.S. and globally through legislation, litigation and public education. Born Free USA is a nationally recognized leader on exotic animal legislation and a member of the Captive Wild Animal Protection Coalition and the Species Survival Network. The organization also manages the Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary near San Antonio, TX, home to more than 500 rescued monkeys. More information can be found at http://www.bornfreeusa.org

Concerned Citizens for Jenny is a grassroots Dallas Metroplex citizens group dedicated to retiring Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary. CCFJ is unaffiliated with any other group.

CCFJ urges all Jenny advocates to keep the phone calls, faxes, and emails up to the Mayor, City Council, City Manager, and Parks and Recreation Director. More information can be found at http://www.concernedcitizensforjenny.net