September 27, 2006 Releas

For Immediate Release: September 27, 2006 Contact: Marianne Bessey (610) 733-1248

TODAY, Center City Banner Display: Zoo To Announce Sending Elephants Away –

Local Residents Say Only Sanctuary Is Acceptable

Philadelphia, Pa. – Today in Center City, local residents will display a massive banner stating "Sanctuary: YES! Zoo: NO!" in response to the Philadelphia Zoo director's announcement that a determination where to send the four elephants will be made in the coming weeks. Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants are calling on Vikram Dewan, the new director, to do the right thing and work with The Elephant Sanctuary to send all four elephants to the 2,700-acre natural habitat.

What: Banner Display
Who: Members of Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants
When: TODAY, Wednesday, September 27, 2006
4:00 pm to 5:00 pm
Where: Market Street Bridge near 30th Street Station

A long and heated controversy has raged at the Zoo since its financially-based decision last October not to build a new enclosure for its elephants, who are currently confined to a 1940’s-era exhibit under cramped and unnatural conditions that are detrimental to their health and well-being.

Vikram Dewan, the new director, announced last Friday that a decision will be made no later than the end of October regarding where at least some of the elephants will be moved. Elephant advocates have urged the Zoo to transfer the elephants to The Elephant Sanctuary, a 2,700-acre refuge in Tennessee that has the space and natural conditions necessary for elephants to thrive.

The Zoo instead threatens to send some or all of the elephants to another zoo. No U.S. zoo has an exhibit large or naturalistic enough to meet the biological and psychological needs of elephants who, in the wild, walk tens of miles a day and live in large, extended family groups.

"Moving any of these elephants to another zoo is just relocating the problem, not removing it," said Marianne Bessey, spokesperson for Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants. "In the last few years, elephants have been moved from zoo to zoo with tragic consequences: either the elephants failed to adjust and were shipped back, like Ruby in Knoxville and Bamboo in Seattle, or they were dead within months after the move, like Wankie, Peaches and Tatima in the Lincoln Park Zoo. Only The Elephant Sanctuary offers the space and time for elephants to adjust to their new setting and all 19 elephants living there are thriving."

Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants is a group of local advocates who are concerned about the elephants at the Philadelphia Zoo. For more information, please visit www.helpphillyzooelephants.com.

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