For Immediate Release: December 18, 2007 Contact: Marianne Bessey (610) 733-1248
Elephants make Holiday Plea to Zoo Director
“Please don’t sacrifice us to the zoo breeding industry”
December 18, 2007 – Philadelphia, PA – On Thursday, members of local grassroots group “Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants” will present zoo director Vik Dewan with a holiday card on behalf of three elephants living at the zoo, asking for release to a sanctuary instead of the planned transfer to a breeding facility in central Pennsylvania. A demonstration will follow where members will distribute holiday flyers to the public containing information about the elephants’ situation.
What: Holiday Card Delivery and Demonstration
Who: Members of Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants
When: Thurday, December 20, 2007, 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Where: Philadelphia Zoo, 34th St. and Girard Ave., Philadelphia PA
The holiday card is from wild-caught African elephants Kallie, Bette, and Petal and reads:
We, the elephants living at the Philadelphia Zoo wish you the best. Please extend the same to us and don’t sacrifice us for the zoo breeding industry.
The two youngest of us are supposed to be bred next year. Mr. Dewan, we don’t want to take the risk at our age giving birth for the first time – similar first-time births have a 50% mortality rate.
You get to spend the holiday at home with your family. We were all stolen from our families in the wild many years ago. At least let us go to a place where we can have some time to ourselves and won’t be hit by bullhooks – they hurt. And we don’t want to spend another long winter standing around inside of a barn most of the time. That’s boring and hard on our feet.
You did the right thing for our former cellmate Dulary, who is now living an elephant’s life in Tennessee. The PAWS sanctuary in California has offered to take us at no charge – won’t you let us go?
A long and heated controversy has raged at the Philadelphia Zoo since its financially-based decision in October 2005 not to build a new enclosure for its elephants - estimated to cost more than $22 million. In April of this year, the Philadelphia Zoo announced plans to send the remaining African elephants to the Pittsburgh Zoo’s “International Conservation Center,” where animals including elephants, rhinos, and African wild dogs are to be bred for display in zoos around the country.
Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants is a group of local advocates concerned about the elephants at the Philadelphia Zoo. For more information, please visit www.helpphillyzooelephants.com.
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