August 4, 2008, Philadelphia:   Today, local citizens urge media, who will tour the elephant breeding facility called the “International Conservation Center” located outside Pittsburgh, to look beyond the bucolic countryside to the true lives the elephants will have there, which will consist of constant domination by bullhook-wielding keepers, no free access to the 724 aces, and life-threatening forced breeding. 

 

Local grassroots group Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants (FPZE) is opposed to the proposed move to the breeding facility. “Our elephants deserve better than a life of bullhooks, forced breeding, and a temporary home. This place is no different from the so-called ‘conservation’ center that the Ringling Bros. circus operates in Florida, except that instead of shipping young elephants around the country in a boxcar, the elephants at the Somerset breeding facility will be shipped from zoo to zoo like museum pieces,” said Marianne Bessey, FPZE spokesperson. “It doesn’t have to be this way for Kallie and Bette. A sanctuary has offered them a forever home at no charge, if only the zoo would let them go.” 

 

Among other things, the group cites the following facts in opposition to the breeding facility:

 

·   Life-threatening: Kallie and Bette are both over 26 years old (the Zoo falsely claims they are 24 and 25 years of age) and have never given birth. It is well established in the zoo industry that captive elephants who have never given birth by the age of 24 years are at high risk of serious birth complications that can lead to a life-threatening situation for the mother.

·   Inadequate living conditions: Elephants need freedom to roam miles every day for their physical and mental health. At the breeding facility, the elephants will spend most of their time inside a barn and small paddocks with only scheduled walks outside with keepers who will control them with the fireplace-poker like weapon called a bullhook. 

·   Temporary home: Zoo officials have stated that elephants will only live temporarily at the breeding facility while they are forcibly bred, either through mating with a bull elephant or artificial insemination. After breeding, the elephants will be exhibited again at another zoo. Elephants are very sensitive and suffer when their lives are continually disrupted like this. 

·   Misdirected funds: It’s false when zoo officials tout the breeding center as “conservation,” as this center will not contribute to true conservation, which is protecting animals in their native homes. Instead, millions of dollars will be wasted to breed a handful of elephants to be used for display in zoo enclosures.

 

Bette and Kallie were both taken as babies from their mothers and homes in the wild to be used for zoo displays. They have been offered a lifetime home at the wonderful Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in California at no charge. At PAWS bullhooks are not used and the elephants would enjoy free access to hundreds of acres. 

 

Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants is a group of local advocates concerned about the elephants at the Philadelphia Zoo. For more information, please visit www.helpphillyzooelephants.com.