Follow Up to Story About the National Zoo in
http://geari.blogspot.com/2006/01/shame-
on-national-zoo-in-washington-dc.html
I fully agree – the remaining Asian Elephants must be sent to an animal sanctuary and the National Zoo must close its elephant exhibit. The National Zoo has proven that it cannot be trusted with the lives of other animals and that they will default to killing others if they think bad publicity will come to them.
I urge you all to contact the people in charge at the zoo. You can find all of their contact information here:
http://geari.blogspot.com/2006/01/shame-on-
national-zoo-in-washington-dc.html
Ask them to atone for killing Toni. As you’ll read in the post above, it was completely unnecessary. It was a result of bad publicity. In essence, they decided to forego scrutiny and play god.
PETA seeks sanctuary for US National Zoo elephants
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=
2628&ncid=2628&e=56&u=/nm/20060127/
Fri Jan 27, 8:54 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An animal rights group on Thursday appealed to the U.S. National Zoo in
The appeal came a day after the zoo put down an arthritic Asian elephant who was said to have been in worsening pain. The elephant named Toni was 40. Elephants can live to be 60 or older.
"Toni was clearly in bad shape and had been suffering for a long time. If she had been sent to a sanctuary years ago, her quality of life and health would have vastly improved," People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, said in a letter to the director of the
Smithsonian Institution's National Zoo.
PETA said elephants in zoos were dying decades short of their expected lifespan from illnesses that were directly related to the large animals' lack of spaces and their inability to walk great distances each day.
The organization urged National Zoo Director John Berry to send the park's three remaining elephants, four-year-old Kandula; his mother, 30-year-old Shanthi, and Ambika, 57, to an accredited sanctuary to spare them from a life of misery.
"At either The Elephant Sanctuary in
A spokesman for the National Zoo was not immediately available for comment.
There has been a growing debate in the
Critics have said that zoo conditions, including small, concrete-floored enclosures, make elephants miserable.
At a news conference on Wednesday, the National Zoo's elephant curator, Tony Barthel, said Ambika, who is healthy and free of arthritis, provided evidence that the zoo enclosure was not the cause of Toni's health woes.
"She has been living in the current conditions at the National Zoo for longer than Toni was alive," he said.
Some
In September zookeepers in
No comments:
Post a Comment