Date
August 29, 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.
“Caged Elephant” and Giant Banner Commemorate One-Year Anniversary of Controversial Elephant Injury at Philadelphia Zoo
Philadelphia, Pa.—On the one-year anniversary of the injury sustained by Dulary, the 42-year-old Asian elephant at the Philadelphia Zoo, an “elephant” will cage herself and advocates will hang a banner reading “Philly Elephants Need Space. Sanctuary YES, Zoo NO,” during Wednesday’s morning and evening rush hour commutes.
The “elephant,” representing Dulary, and the advocates from Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants (FPZE) and In Defense of Animals will repeat the stunt on Sunday, September 3 at the entrance to the Zoo.
Dulary has been isolated and warehoused in a concrete barn for at least 20 hours a day for the year after she was injured in an altercation with Bette, one of the Zoo’s African elephants. Animal advocates hope to convince the Philadelphia Zoo to send all of the elephants to a sanctuary so that they may recover and live out their days in a naturalistic environment.
Who: Members of Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants and In Defense of Animals
What: Banner displays
When: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 at 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Where: Vine Street Bridge, 10th and Vine
and
Where: Spring Garden Bridge (near Zoo) at 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
When: Sunday, September 3, 2006 at 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Where: Philadelphia Zoo, 34th Street and Girard Ave.
A long and heated controversy has raged at the Zoo since its financially-based decision 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.
According to the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the Philadelphia Zoo has decided to close the elephant exhibit and send its four elephants away. Elephant advocates have urged the Zoo to transfer the elephants 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 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.
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 and www.HelpElephants.com.