For Immediate Release: October 3, 2009
PROTEST TODAY - As Zoo Proudly Proclaims Addition to Collection of Baby Orangutan, Local Citizens Cry Out for Information on Elephants
Philadelphia, Pa. – While the Philadelphia Zoo promotes its newest attraction destined for display in a small plexiglass cell - a baby orangutan sure to draw in the crowds - local citizens will rally today to demand accountability from the zoo. In the 85 days since the elephants Kallie and Bette were transferred to the Pittsburgh Zoo’s breeding-holding facility, the Philadelphia Zoo has released photos and videos just once, during a staged media event on July 28, 2009. Local citizens will urge the zoos to open up the facility to third parties and provide timely updates on the elephants’ status. They will also renew their call for the zoos to send the elephants to a true sanctuary and drop the previously-stated plans to try to breed the two elephants.
Bette and Kallie, 27-year-old wild-born African elephants, were shipped out during a late-night truck ride on July 8, 2009. Other than the staged media event, updates have been virtually non-existent. The Pittsburgh Zoo’s website doesn’t mention Kallie or Bette at all, and the website of the Philadelphia Zoo only vaguely refers to the elephants “settling in comfortably” along with inane descriptions like how the “elephants can pick up their feet on cue” – a behavior the elephants learned years ago. In stark contrast, elephant Dulary's move from the Philadelphia Zoo to The Elephant Sanctuary (TES) in Tennessee in May 2007 was documented by a CBS news camera crew who videotaped Dulary's steps off the trailer, meeting her new friends and exploring her new forever home. TES and the Philadelphia Zoo provided over a dozen separate updates along with numerous photos and videos to the public during the first 90 days of her arrival at TES.
“It’s sad that yet another exotic animal has been bred for display at a zoo that can’t take care of the animals it already has, many of whom are displayed in outdated, depression-era enclosures.” said Marianne Bessey, spokesperson for local grassroots group Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants. “And even sadder that apparently the elephants don’t matter any more; maybe if they too produced a baby, the zoos would provide an update.”
WHEN: TODAY, October 3, 2009, 12:00 p.m.
WHERE: Sidewalk in front of Philadelphia Zoo, 34th St. & Girard Ave.
WHAT: Demonstration to Send Philly Elephants to Sanctuary
Media reports inaccurately refer to the breeding-holding facility as a "sanctuary" despite the differing goals and opposing philosophies of sanctuaries and the Pittsburgh Zoo's facility. At sanctuaries, animals are allowed free access to hundreds of acres and they have the choice of activities and friends. At the breeding-holding facility, the animals are kept in pens consisting of just a few acres and pain-inflicting devices such as bullhooks are used to dominate them and make them obey. In addition, sanctuaries offer the stability of a lifetime home; the breeding-holding facility is an extension of the zoo industry where animals are temporarily stored between displays or bred to provide more animals for exhibit.
Nearly three years ago, the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), a 2,300-acre refuge in California with the space and natural conditions necessary for elephants to thrive, offered to take the then-three African elephants at no charge (52-year-old elephant Petal has since died, collapsing in her cement stall in June 2008). Zoo Director Vik Dewan refuses to send the elephants to the spacious sanctuary, opting instead to send them to the Pittsburgh Zoo’s breeding-holding facility. Zoo officials have previously stated plans to first breed Kallie and Bette with a bull elephant, and then use artificial insemination - an extremely invasive and painful procedure for elephants. Ample zoo industry date shows a first-time pregnancy for elephants over the age of 25 is life-threatening; Kallie and Bette are both 27 and have never been bred. www.ElesAngels.com .
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