In February 2006, the Philadelphia Zoo banned a member of the Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants ("FPZE") organization allegedly based on chat group posts about the Zoo's director. Philadelphia Zoo staff had been secretly monitoring the chat group posts for over six months. Gretchen Toner, Vice President of Communications, threatened to ban other members of the group from the Zoo if the Zoo found out their names.
Enter the Ele's Angels.
The Ele's Angels are area residents hired by FPZE to visit the Zoo and monitor the elephants. None of the Ele's Angels have any prior affiliation with FPZE. The Ele's Angels responded to an ad FPZE posted on Craig's List. They are paid $15 per zoo visit. Each Ele's Angel visits the Zoo approximately twice a week at varying times of day and reports their observations and impressions of the elephants. The Ele's Angels also take photos of the elephants. The visits and photos can be viewed on the website at the "Calendar" and "Photos" pages.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer covered the story:
Elephant activists hire monitors
The leader of a group focused on one Asian elephant was banned from the zoo. Officials may relocate the animal.
Philadelphia Inquirer, April 9, 2006
Hang out long enough at the Philadelphia Zoo's elephant exhibit and you might meet up with a spy.
In the latest twist in a standoff between zoo officials and anti-captivity forces, the activists have hired an undercover team to keep tabs on Dulary, the 42-year-old Asian elephant whose lack of social contact has been a concern since last summer, when she was separated from the herd after a stable mate gashed her in the eye.
Since that August dustup, the zoo has banned the leading activist for making remarks deemed threatening to its director. In turn, she has retained a Washington law firm to initiate action against the zoo for its treatment of Dulary. She also ran "missing elephant" newspaper ads during the animal's confinement.
Meanwhile, the dusty gray lady at the heart of this upheaval may soon be leaving Philadelphia, which has been her home since she was captured in the wild as a calf.
Andrew Baker, the zoo's senior vice president for animal programs, said Friday that a decision to move Dulary to another zoo or a sanctuary could come in the next couple of months.
"We are really not set up to deal with two separate herds, which is what we have now," he said. "Our priority is dealing with Dulary's situation."
It's possible that all four elephants could be relocated.
"What we're doing is looking at all possible options and investigating each option thoroughly," Baker said. "It's taken longer than I thought."
The search began in the fall when the zoo, citing a money shortfall, announced it would not build a new elephant enclosure. It also said it might close the small exhibit where Dulary and three African elephants - Petal, 50, Callie, 24, and Bette, 23 - live.
Local activists, led by lawyer Marianne Bessey, have kept up nonstop pressure - through demonstrations, appeals to City Council, school presentations, and a petition drive - to have the animals sent to a sanctuary. They also complained to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which found that the zoo was not violating the Animal Welfare Act.
"The USDA is notoriously useless when it comes to that," said Bessey, who initially used the pseudonym Rowan Morrison for her animal activities.
Though Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants, Bessey's group, wants all of the elephants moved, it has shifted its focus to Dulary because of her confinement. She was kept inside the Pachyderm House, a concrete barn, to recover from her eye injury and a kidney problem. Baker said Dulary now goes out in the yard on days when the weather is good, but only when the Africans are inside.
Bessey said that when she videotaped Dulary in January, the elephant was slow and seemed depressed.
"She looks extremely thin," Bessey said.
Baker said the elephant dropped from 8,300 pounds to a low of 7,549. At her last weigh-in, she was 7,751.
Bessey, banned from the zoo in February for remarks attributed to her on an Internet chat room, placed an online ad and recruited three spies to visit regularly and report on Dulary's progress.
She bought each one a zoo membership, dubbed them "Ele's Angels," and pays them $15 a visit.
Bessey has joined with the group In Defense of Animals in threatening to take action against the zoo for alleged violations of the Endangered Species Act for its treatment of Dulary.
Erin Tobin, a lawyer with the public-interest firm Meyer Glitzenstein & Crystal of Washington, sent a letter on their behalf in late March to zoo president Alexander Hoskins that accused the zoo of mistreatment and urged that Dulary be moved.
Baker said the zoo does not intend to respond.
"We don't see any basis for a lawsuit," he said.
He also said he didn't understand the activists' cloak-and-dagger approach.
"We're not trying to hide anything," he said. "It's another attempt to generate controversy."
Baker has been spending his time exploring possible new homes for the elephants. The younger two are likely to go to another zoo for breeding as part of a push by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) to replenish the captive population.
Carol Buckley, director of the 2,700-acre Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn., said she was ready to take Dulary immediately "at no charge whatsoever to the zoo" and to transport her in a climate-controlled trailer.
The sanctuary, home to zoo and circus retirees, has 16 Asian elephants and three Africans. It will not accept more African elephants until a renovation is completed in the fall.
Any move the zoo makes must have the blessing of the AZA's Species Survival Plan for elephants. AZA spokeswoman Jane Ballentine said the SSP cannot recommend that elephants be sent to a non-accredited facility, such as the Elephant Sanctuary. It can, however, deem an animal as "surplus," allowing it to be placed outside the system.
"We are not anti-sanctuary," she said.
But, she added, if an AZA member wants to send an elephant to a non-accredited institution, it must prove that it is "a place where you know it's going to get the best possible care."
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UPDATE November 2007: The formerly banned member rejoined the zoo and is once again frequently visiting the elephants to monitor their condition.
