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Tucson: save the elephants petition

by on Nov. 29, 2011, under Animal Cruelty, Animal News

Tucson: Elephants never forget

What a sad story and once again the Tucson City Council has no heart. Why am I not surprised?

The Reid Park Zoo is splitting long time companions Shaba and Connie after 30 years. Do elephants have feelings? Hell, yes. According to the Nature website — elephants feel joy, anger, grief, compassion, love, and attachment that rival our own.

“While there is a great deal more to learn about what elephants feel, such accounts are astonishing. They reveal a creature that weeps, revels, rages and grieves. They lead us to believe that the depth of elephant emotional capacity knows no limit. They are striking for they suggest that elephants act on feelings and not solely for survival.”

I have to wonder why the elephants are being separated when the original plan of expanding the habitat was to keep them together.

As with every encounter and endeavor, should we follow the money?

First the giraffes eat poisonous oleander and now the Zoo administrators are separating the elephants. According to a previous Tucson Citizen blog post in 2010, The Reid Park Zoo made the worst zoos for elephants list. Nothing’s changed.

A private citizen started a petition to keep the elephants together. Please consider signing it.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 29th, 2011 at 4:29 am and is filed under Animal Cruelty, Animal News. Tags for this post: , , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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  • Ted

    So do you have any evidence to support your insinuation that there the decision to move the elephant is a financial one? If not, could you at least make up some?

    Please, leave decisions about animals to professionals. You’re just a chump with a soap box. 

    • http://tucsoncitizen.com/tucson-tails karyn

      Ted
      I’m asking the question regarding money. Usually money is a looming factor in all decision making. 
      Thanks for your comment.

      • Ted

        Oh please. That’s the oldest and weakest excuse in the journalist’s handbook. Throw a question mark at the end of a baseless insinuation and it covers your ***.

        You could easily spend 30 minutes making phone calls and learn the answer to your question, but since I assume it’s the not answer that would further your cause, you’d just as soon not. 

        • leslie

          What kind of bug do you have up your ass, Ted?

    • fraser007

      The Reid Park Zoo staff cant even feed a giraffee right. Cant wait until they screw this one up. Maybe the City Council can ramrod this one!

    • leftfield

      “Please, leave decisions about animals to professionals.” 

      Normally, I’d agree wholeheartedly with this.  I think most professionals in this area would agree that after cohabitating for 30 years, separating this pair of elephants is going to cause them anxiety beyond that which normally would be associated with a change of environment.  I can’t say I’ve heard the given rationale for this move, but I hope it is a damn good one.  Aside from questioning the necessity for the planned separation, I have to also question the rationale for keeping animals such as the great apes, large cats and elephants captive.  Short of turning over Texas, we can’t possibly hope to mimic the environment that allows normal species behaviors for elephants.  As much as this business is about concern for the elephants involved, it is also about concern for the human species, because it has so much to say about us.    

  • Tracy T

    Ted, you may be interested in this: 
    The Association of Zoos and Aquariums or AZA, is an organization of professionals whose members include national zoos and aquariums.  It offers the prestige of accreditation.  BUT, as with most professional organizations, it provides only UNENFORCEABLE recommendations for the care and treatment of animals.  The United States Dept of AGRICULTURE oversees and ENFORCES the care of animals in zoos.  The list of the USDA’s inefficiencies is a whole other topic.  Even more importantly the AZA and their members have a VESTED interest in maintaining and encouraging the profitability of zoos and aquariums.  This inherently puts the AZA’s interests in DIRECT conflict with the animals.  Our zoo animals are very much on their own and subject to the dictates of organizations, like the AZA, that have a financial interest in them. 
    The AZA guidelines for elephant care state that an elephant cannot be chained for more than the majority of a 24 hour period.  That means under their standards an elephant COULD be held for 11 hours and 59 minutes at a time.  The AZA also states elephant calves can be weaned at 3 years of age.  We know elephants in the wild do not wean their calves until they are at least four or more years of age and female calves remain with their mothers, sisters, aunts and grandmothers for life.  We know they walk miles in a day and require space to roam.  Why when we know so much about the needs and habits of these elephants, are we saying that the AZA standards are revered and should be obeyed implicitly?

  • http://tucsoncitizen.com/ecotucson/ Kate Kaemerle

    Does anyone know of a mammal that doesn’t have feelings? If you have ever had a dog or cat for a pet it’s very obvious when they’re happy, sad, playful or peaceful.

  • fraser007

    Has anyone noticed how many feel good stories have emmitted from the Zoo lately. Reunited lions for example just tonight. Guess the City Propanganda Dept is working overtime. Yes City Zoo someone is watching. Whats next? Cant wait for the next cute animal story next week.

    • Tracy T

      Fraser007 you are so right!  I have noticed.

  • Anne W.

    I  agree with Leslie “What kind of bug do you have up your ass, Ted?”  Animals have feelings just like humans and grieve the loss of their family members.

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