Date
June 30, 2006
Contact
Marianne Bessey
(610) 733-1248
In Defense of Animals
3010 Kerner Blvd
San Rafael
CA 94901
IDA is an international, California-based animal advocacy organization dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by defending their rights, welfare and habitats.
Advocates “Assemble” to Call for Elephant Freedom
Groups to Make Independence Day Appeal for Elephants at Philly Zoo
Philadelphia, Pa.—Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants (FPZE), In Defense of Animals (IDA), and “Dulary” the elephant, will gather this Fourth of July weekend to urge Philadelphia residents and visitors to give the elephants at Philadelphia Zoo their liberty this Independence Day
When: Saturday, July 1, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Where: Philadelphia Zoo, main entrance
and
When: Tuesday, July 4, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Where: Philadelphia Constitution Center at 6th and Arch
Elephant advocates are urging the Zoo to close its 1940’s-era exhibit and transfer the elephants at Philadelphia Zoo to The Elephant Sanctuary (TES), a 2,700-acre refuge in Tennessee that has the space and natural conditions necessary for elephants to thrive.
The Zoo has been at the center of controversy since its financially-based decision not to build a new enclosure for its elephants, who are confined in cramped and unnatural conditions that are detrimental to their health and well-being.
Of particular concern is the Zoo’s treatment of Dulary, a 42-year-old endangered Asian elephant who has been warehoused in a concrete barn for more than ten months since she was “attacked” by one of the Zoo’s African elephants. In March, IDA and FPZE notified the Zoo that its treatment of Dulary violated the federal Endangered Species Act.
According to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the Philadelphia Zoo has already decided to close the elephant exhibit and send its four elephants away. Although two City Council members, James F. Kenney and Blondell Reynolds Brown, and thousands of Philadelphia residents support sending the elephants to a sanctuary, the Zoo threatens instead to send 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. (The largest elephant exhibit at a U.S. zoo is just eight acres. There are 640 acres in one mile.)
“Elephants are liberty loving animals whose vast needs simply cannot be met within the small confines of the Philadelphia Zoo,” said FPZE spokesperson Marianne Bessey. “The Zoo should let freedom ring by closing its shameful elephant exhibit and sending the elephants to a sanctuary.”
For more information, please visit www.helpphillyzooelephants.com.