I will not accept that the people who raised this issue are deserve death!!!

My response in the above post on Buckles Blog to Joey Rattliff, was in reference to this newspaper article. And after looking for months, I can find no documentation/study/proof that the elephants were not taken from their mothers, as it was suggest that the "radicals" were saying, just to be a pain in the butt. I have suggested to two of the gentleman in the above post, that they shouldn't say things like that, and that is only hurts "our" cause, and makes us look invalid. I didn't waste my time a second time, as I stated the same thing a couple of days ago, in regards to a "radical" statement, and I suggested today that Margaret not, repeat those things. Casey Canine, who is starting to see the light did suggest that they gentleman not say things like that, and it was censored by the man and blog he apologized to. I hope he will run his comment to the men here, as we will run it, as THAT VENOM HAS TO STOP, OR IT WILL KEEP US FROM ADDRESSING THE REAL ISSUES.

Doubts cast on ( Taronga Zoo's ) elephants' origins

Kelly Burke - Sydney Morning Herald
February 25, 2008

RENEWED doubts over the legality of Taronga Zoo's importation of nine Asian elephants have been raised overseas, with documents from Thailand suggesting that up to half may have been snatched from the wild.

Moreover, the registration certificate for one elephant, the now pregnant Thong Dee, shows she is just six years and nine months old - despite an animal welfare requirement that the zoo not use any elephant under the age of 12 for breeding.

Last Friday, the Herald contacted the zoo's media relations manager, Mark Williams, informing him that it had the registration documents in its possession and requesting the zoo provide alternative documentation to substantiate its claim that Thong Dee was indeed eight years old.

The zoo failed to provide any documentation, instead issuing a media release stating that the elephant's former owners in Thailand had since reneged on Thong Dee's age, admitting they had only "roughly estimated" it at the time the documents were prepared.

The next day, the zoo publicly increased Thong Dee's age from eight to between 11 and 12. In The Daily Telegraph on Saturday, her new age was announced, after a reported dental examination on Friday afternoon by the zoo's elephant director, Gary Miller.

The Herald has commissioned two independent translations of the original Thai documents, tendered to the Australian government in 2006 to support the case for the elephants' importation.

Both confirmed that Thong Dee's registration certificate, dated December 16, 2003, lists her age as two years and six months at the time of registration.

Taronga, which until Saturday was claiming Thong Dee was eight years old, has been forced to defend the unexpected pregnancy. If the pregnancy succeeds, however, it will hold the honour of being the first zoo in Australasia to breed an Asian elephant in captivity.

As the story of Thong Dee's rapid graduation from eight to 12 years of age over the weekend travelled the world over the internet, the ire of overseas experts was raised once more.

Ian Redmond, a wildlife consultant who received an OBE for services to conservation in 2006, said it was inconceivable that any elephant handler could be as much as six years out in estimating an elephant's age. "It's like mistaking a toddler for a 10-year-old child … this is getting silly. The fact that Thong Dee is pregnant is irrefutable evidence of her being physiologically capable of reproduction; the question is over her psychological immaturity."

The emergence of the elephants' registration certificates also threatens to ignite a second international row. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, papers must show a young elephant has been legally obtained by the exporter. This is usually achieved by identifying the mother and father, thereby proving the calf has been captive-bred. Yet the documents for four of the imported elephants give no details of parentage.

Will Travers, the British-based president of the Species Survival Network and a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, said the Taronga Zoo management's new claims that its original export documents were unreliable called into question "the reliability, and therefore credibility, of the entire export process, [which is] already demonstrably full of holes".

Dr Redmond said the latest revelations raised the possibility the entire elephant shipment to Australia was wild-born, and called on Taronga to immediately conduct DNA testing to remove all doubts.

Last night the zoo said it had met all Australian and international criteria in the 2006 export of the elephants. "The Thai and Australian governments ensured all the animals were born in Thai work camps," Mr Williams said. "Thai registration procedures for elephants do not require owners to list parents' names, so the absence of these names is irrelevant and not illegal."

He said animal activists such as Mr Travers were "simply continuing a vexatious five-year anti-zoo campaign against a legitimate and internationally sanctioned conservation program."