Sanctuary // Current

Chimps 90 Percent Gone in a "Final Stronghold"

West African chimpanzees have declined by 90 percent in the last 18 years in an African country that is one of the... more

contactkatrinaford
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(Video) Goodbye, Sanctuary

As San Francisco's sanctuary policy comes under attack, ICE steps up its arrests of suspected undocumented families. Since... more

goldenways
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Who sanctioned the rape of a sanctuary?

On-the-spot report from Kumudini Hettiarachchi in Uda Walawe, Pix by M.A.Pushpa Kumara Absolute stillness, the stillness of the... more

julesrs007
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Ravers descend on Ikea, shoppers slightly shocked

Shoppers and flatpack enthusiasts alike were left a bit lost for words when 300 hardcore-ravers cracked out the glowsticks and... more

mattbrawn
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Please help Jenny the Elephant now! | Animal Law Coalition

Please act to stop the Dallas zoo from sending Jenny, the elephant, to a small amusement park in Mexico. There will be NO U.S. Animal Welfare or Anti-Cruelty Laws covering Jenny in Mexico. Several SANCTUARIES will take Jenny! Please X-POST!

http://www.animallawcoalition.com/wildlife/article/548

PLEASE read Jenny's story:

On Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News ran a story entitled "Dallas Zoo's lone elephant to be moved to wildlife refuge in Mexico" about the zoo's controversial decision to dump Jenny, a 31-year-old African elephant, at a safari amusement park in Mexico . Since the death of Jenny's elephant companion, Keke (39), in May, Concerned Citizens for Jenny has urged the zoo to send Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.

The Mexican park offers an unnatural, confining exhibit of only 4.9 acres --a small fraction of the 2,700-acre Elephant Sanctuary, where Jenny would share a spacious, 300-acre natural habitat with three other African elephants.

It is shocking that the Dallas Zoo is moving Jenny to a distant facility in a foreign country where she will not be protected by U.S. animal welfare and anti-cruelty laws, especially when there is a nearby U.S. facility with hundreds of acres that is prepared to take her.

After being torn from her mother's side in Africa at the age of two, she was forced into seven years of brutal training. Jenny has been at the Dallas Zoo for 22 years, where she has had a traumatic and troubled stay. Between 1996 and 2001, the Dallas Zoo medicated her with the tranquilizer Acepromazine because of aggression and self-mutilating behaviors. Federal regulators characterized Jenny's long-term treatment with this psychotropic drug as "highly unconventional."

While African elephants in the wild are known to reproduce into their 50s and live into their 60s, in zoos they commonly die decades short of their natural time. In short, the Dallas Zoo's decision is a matter of life and death for Jenny.

The sanctuaries who will accept Jenny have thousands of acres versus 4.9 acres at the Safari Amusement Park. The 4.9 acres is likely subdivided so Jenny may actually have far less space than that. However, the Elephant Sanctuary in TN ( http://www.elephants.com/) is a state of the art, 2,700 acre elephant refuge. It is the largest natural habitat refuge in the world and has a four star charity rating from Charity Navigator. The PAWS Sanctuary ( http://www.pawsweb.org/) in California has hundreds of acres and is also a state of the art, internationally recognized facility. Both U.S. sanctuaries are excellent and Jenny should be able to retire to one of these.

Please act to stop the Dallas zoo from sending Jenny, the elephant, to a small amusement park in Mexico. There will be NO U.S.... more