Jenny Won't Go to Exhibition Park
Update August 10, 2008: For weeks Dallas city officials insisted it was up to zoo officials whether or not Jenny, the elephant, would be sent to Africam Safari Park in Puebla, Mexico, about 80 miles southeast of Mexico City.  Zoo officials insisted the park which is accredited by the Association of  Zoos and Aquariums, would be just fine for Jenny, with lots of other elephants and 5 acres of land in which she could roam.
But now Mayor Tom Leppert and the city council have told zoo officials to come up with a different plan for the aging elephant. This is thanks to the numerous calls, letters and emails from animal welfare advocates and concerned citizens who did not want to see the elephant, who lost her long time companion, Keke, in May, sent to the park in Mexico. Even actress/comedienne Lily Tomlin joined in the protest.
Protesters were concerned though Jenny would have the companionship of other elephants and more acreage in which to move around at the Park in Mexico, she would still be an "exhibit", so to speak, on display for the public. Contact with the public is very stressful for Jenny. Protesters also pointed out the Park in Mexico would not be subject to U.S. Animal Welfare Act regulations or animal cruelty laws.
Such as they are. The Animal Welfare Act requires all zoos to be licensed and subject to periodic inspections by the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The regulations, 9 CFR 2.4, 2.131, 3.75-3.142, provide minimal standards for keeping and handling animals for exhibitions including all zoos except those operated by federal agencies. The regulations do not apply at all, however, to birds, reptiles or other cold blooded animals. Also, there are few APHIS inspectors for the thousands of zoos and other animal exhibitors, research facilities, and commercial pet breeders. Many APHIS inspectors are simply not adequately trained in the care and handling of wild animals. The agency as a whole tends to work with zoos to encourage compliance rather than strictly enforce the regulations. Â Â
The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) also regulates zoos by accreditation of members that comply with voluntary standards.
Neither the AZA nor the APHIS seemed to have made much of a dent, however, in the rampant illegal trade in zoo animals particularly surplus animals from breeding programs; the animals end up victimized in canned hunts, sleazy exhibitions, slaughterhouses and the like.
The issue here was not so much that Jenny would be better treated at one zoo or exhibition or another. Rather, it is whether wild animals like Jenny should be in captivity at all. Elephants are highly intelligent, very sensitive, social animals that belong to complex family units. They suffer mentally and physically and die at a much younger age when held in captivity and not allowed to have social companions, families, and roam and engage in other natural behaviors.
Zoos in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Detroit have stopped exhibiting elephants and allowed them to go to sanctuaries. The Elephant Sanctuary, http://www.elephants.com/ in Hohenwald, Tennessee has said Jenny is welcome there. Â Â
When Jenny leaves, Dallas will also no longer have elephants for exhibition in its zoo.
Original story: 1. Contact Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and the Dallas City Council before their July 1 recess. (See talking points below)
Telephone Mayor Leppert and politely urge him to send Jenny to a sanctuary in the USA. Whether or not you live in Dallas, making a polite phone call is the most important thing you can do. If you called once, please find a reason to call again. Ask everyone you know to also call. Here is Mayor
Leppert's contact information:
Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390
Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@
If you live in Dallas, telephone your city council representative. Please politely but firmly tell your council representative, and everyone else to whom you speak in your council office, that you want the council office to record your strong objection to Jenny being transferred to Mexico and that you want her sent to a sanctuary in the USA. Please do not allow them to convince you to call the Zoo instead. The City Council is the ultimate decision maker, not the Zoo. Click here for Council contact info. Whether or not you live in Dallas, email the Dallas Mayor and the City Council ALL at one time by copying and pasting the web address immediately below into your search field (if you click on it, you will email the mayor alone):
 http://www.ci.
2. Write a letter to the editor today!
We must bring Jenny's plight to the attention of the public by gaining access to the media. Letters to the editor is our best option, as we do not have a PR firm like the Zoo. Please write a letter to the editor of the
Dallas Morning News objecting to Jenny's transfer to an amusement park in Mexico and describing why Jenny's life would be better in a sanctuary than in a Mexican safari park that operates outside U.S. animal welfare and anti-cruelty laws.
Letters should be between 50 and 200 words. Letters are selected for publication based on their clarity and brevity. They require the writer's name, city and telephone number.
Send your letter objecting to Jenny's transfer to Mexico to:
Letters From Readers
The Dallas Morning News
Box 655237
Dallas , Texas 75265
Or submit your letter online at http://www.dallasne
TALKING POINTS
1. There will be NO U.S. Animal Welfare or Anti-Cruelty Laws covering Jenny in Mexico.
2. The sanctuaries who will accept Jenny have thousands of acres versus 4.9 acres at the Safari Amusement Park. The 4.9 acres is likely subdivided so Jenny may actually have far less space than that. However, the Elephant Sanctuary in TN ( http://www.elephant
3. After you express your opinion, ask for a copy of the performance and quality of care standards the Dallas Zoo put in place for Jenny at the Safari Amusement Park. Note: We bet there probably are no such standards. The Zoo is claiming the Safari Park is AZA accredited, which means very little. AZA is just a trade group and is not a guarantee of quality. AZA facilities have been cited for breeches of USDA standards. The Zoo hired a PR firm to spin this story to the media, but the truth is still the truth.
Jenny's story
On Tuesday, the Dallas Morning News ran a story entitled "Dallas Zoo's lone elephant to be moved to wildlife refuge in Mexico" about the zoo's controversial decision to dump Jenny, a 31-year-old African elephant, at a safari amusement park in Mexico . Since the death of Jenny's elephant companion, Keke (39), in May, Concerned Citizens for Jenny has urged the zoo to send Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee.
The Mexican park offers an unnatural, confining exhibit of only 4.9 acres --a small fraction of the 2,700-acre Elephant Sanctuary, where Jenny would share a spacious, 300-acre natural habitat with three other African elephants.
It is shocking that the Dallas Zoo is moving Jenny to a distant facility in a foreign country where she will not be protected by U.S. animal welfare and anti-cruelty laws, especially when there is a nearby U.S. facility with hundreds of acres that is prepared to take her.
After being torn from her mother's side in Africa at the age of two, she was forced into seven years of brutal training. Jenny has been at the Dallas Zoo for 22 years, where she has had a traumatic and troubled stay. Between 1996 and 2001, the Dallas Zoo medicated her with the tranquilizer
Acepromazine because of aggression and self-mutilating behaviors. Federal regulators characterized Jenny's long-term treatment with this psychotropic drug as "highly unconventional.
While African elephants in the wild are known to reproduce into their 50s and live into their 60s, in zoos they commonly die decades short of their natural time. In short, the Dallas Zoo's decision is a matter of life and death for Jenny.
THE ZOO MAY SHIP JENNY TO MEXICO BEFORE THEY THINK WE ORGANIZE ACTION TO
STOP THEM. PLEASE ACT FOR JENNY TODAY!
IMPORTANT! If you live in Dallas and will consent to your name being listed as a member of Concerned Citizens for Jenny, please email me your name, address, phone and in which Dallas district you live. The more Dallas Citizens, who are listed as members, the more influence we have for her.
If you want to work to save Jenny, please contact Margaret Morin,Chair, Concerned Citizens for Jenny,
ASAP:Â dogs_good@yahoo.
Re: Please help Jenny Now
I agree with what you say on Jenny, but it's so interesting. You're mentioning what should be done with her based on her case, but when it comes to mandatory spay/neutering for dogs and cats, you're treating them all alike, as if all of them will one day be strays when that simply is not the case. It would be better to have a law that reqauired mandatory spay/neutering for dogs and cats that are unattended, but when people are taking care of their dogs and cats and they never get loose, that mandatory spay/neutering law should not be applicable. See what I'm saying? That's why that mandatory spay/neutering is NOT fair. There are many responsible pet owners that are against. They're the ones who are in the majority. Punish the guilty, but don't do it to the innocent. Please, I beg of you to push for justice in that law. That's why I'm posting this. I believe that what you want is justice and good treatment of all of the animals. So do I. We're on the same side when it comes to that.
Actually, Animal Law
Actually, Animal Law Coalition does not support mandatory spay/neuter laws except in certain cases such as animals adopted from shelters/rescues, dogs that are impounded more than once for being off leash or at large, dogs that are declared "dangerous" or "potentially dangerous" or have bitten once and cats allowed to roam free. Animal Law Coalition supports free, low cost or moderate cost spay/neuter and education about the importance of spay/neuter as a better use of state and local government resources rather than a broad, mandatory law that is difficult to enforce, unfairly impacts the poor and could result in decreased compliance with licensing and rabies vaccination laws as people try to avoid the mandatory law.   Â
Re: Actually Animal Law
Oh, I'm so sorry. I had no idea, and I should have read more on how you viewed it. Thank you so much for clarifying that. Somehow, I believe that I'm at the right site, a place where maybe there's hope. Is there any way that you can help with the laws that were passed for the majority of dogs and cats? At this point, I have no choice but to get it done on my dog, unless someone speaks up about it. I'm still in a state of shock that it was passed for most of them, whether or not they're strays. I talk to some, and they just seem to have apathy like, well, it's the law now so we have to do it. I may join this site. I like what you're doing, and I so thank you for your patience.