Jenny

magine you were in Jenny’s place. After seeing your mother killed when you were an infant and after being abused as a youngster, you spent the last 23 years of your life in a tiny, barren, enclosure, on display. You have been depressed. You have tried to hurt yourself. Your captors drugged you. From time to time, they moved someone in to be with you. You even found two friends. But you watched your friends die. Now your guardians are bragging about the new, larger exhibit they are making for you. But they have the chance, at no cost, to let you retire to a place almost 100 times as large as the exhibit they have planned. They can send you to a home where you will be treated for your depression not with drugs – but with proven therapies. They can let you go to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. Tell us - if you were Jenny, what would you want?

At two years of age, Jenny was captured in Africa . Although we don’t know for sure, her mother was probably killed in front of her. It is quite possible that she witnessed the deaths of other elephants in her herd, as well.

Baby elephants usually nurse until 3 years of age. But, Jenny’s carefree life was cut short. Still in her infancy, she was purchased by an elephant trainer who was noted for his brutality. She remained under his control until the age of ten, when the trainer was attacked by another elephant in his charge, and Jenny was sent to the Dallas Zoo.

Her life in Dallas has not been happy. She lives in a small enclosure. And she lost her good friend, Moja - as a former zoo employee recounts:

“I remember the two of them together, tightly bonded and affectionate. I have a photo of them on exhibit leaning side to side while they ate their hay. The day I took the photo, I watched them rub their trunks together and rumble, seeming more contented than I ever expected while standing in their tiny concrete world.

One morning I arrived at the zoo parking lot to hear a screaming sound rolling down the hill from the large mammal barn. It was followed by clashing and banging....When I made it to the top of the hill, I realized Moja was lying dead in her stall. We later found out her heart had stopped due to a fast-acting disease that causes swelling and fluid in the linings around the organ. As was common practice in those days, Jenny was chained in the stall next to Moja, unable to touch her friend. She would reach her trunk out, coming just shy of touching Moja, straining against her chains. Then, she would beat her head against the wall, scream, kick, and thrash around. A trail of wet was running down her face below both eyes. The keepers tried to calm her, but they couldn't. Eventually, the zoo administrators ordered Moja hooked up to a crane and they dragged her out of the building and off exhibit where she wouldn't be seen by the public when they arrived. The whole time, Jenny beat her head, yelling and thrashing until the walls rattled.

Jenny became volatile after that day, prone to uncontrollable rages, lashing out at her keepers... She has yet to fully recover. Over the years, the zoo has given her anti-depressants, even tranquilizers, to calm her. They have also tried several other companion elephants, but Jenny refused most of them. Sometimes, loud noises would set her off, things like music during special events, loud machinery, strange vehicles, or equipment being used in the area. She has broken the cables in her exhibit with her head more than once during her rages. Eventually, after tireless effort from her keepers, Jenny was introduced to and had finally accepted another African elephant companion.” That new companion was Keke. And now, Keke is gone, too. She died on May 12, 2008. And Jenny is alone again... in a pitifully small enclosure... waiting for Dallas to do the right thing.

What is the right thing to do? We feel that Dallas should let Jenny retire to the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee . There, she would be free to roam on 300 acres with two other African elephants. And, what is more, the sanctuary has an excellent record of treating elephants, like Jenny, who suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Even more impressive, the sanctuary has offered to accept Jenny at no cost to Dallas tax payers. And we can all watch her recovery on the internet via the “elecam” camcorders!

However, Dallas zoo director Greg Hudson has other plans. At first, Hudson claimed that the right thing to do was to send Jenny to a drive-thru safari park in Mexico . Seems like a bad place to send an elephant who is upset by loud noises. But Mr. Hudson had the City Council convinced that this was in Jenny’s best interests. And he didn’t change his opinion until some savvy Jenny advocates and noted attorney Don Feare called a press conference to disclose problems with the safari park contract. This forced Hudson to scramble for the next “right thing to do”.

What was that? Well, the zoo could fast-track the construction of its new, enlarged, African Savannah exhibit! Jenny could stay in Dallas , after all! Cue the trumpets! Sad to say, the Dallas Morning News and many members of the City Council bought into this lame idea, as well.



While we would hesitate to question Mr. Hudson’s motives for first wanting to send Jenny to a (AZA accredited) Mexican safari park and then determining that she would be best off here, it has been suggested that Hudson may be under the thrall of the AZA. As a matter of fact, in an article about Jenny, the New York Times noted that the AZA can “make or break a zoo director’s career”. The AZA (American Zoological Association) is in the zoo business, you see, and elephants are a big draw. For this reason, the group frowns on the transfer of elephants to a non-AZA facility.

If you think of the AZA as a wonderful organization, intent on the best care of the animals in their accredited facilities, you might want to read what Les Schobert, who has more than 30 years of experience in elephant care as general curator of the Los Angeles and North Carolina zoos, had to say: "You might assume that the ... AZA would incorporate stringent standards...but unfortunately, this is not true. The reality is that the AZA is an industry trade organization regulated by the operators of zoos themselves. Any incorporation of costly new mandatory standards ... would surely raise the ire of those institutions.... So zoos are asked to adhere to minimal standards ... 1,800 square feet of space outdoors for an elephant and 400 square feet indoors—a 20-by-20-foot cubicle for an animal that in the wild walks tens of miles a day and is in constant motion. You may be surprised to learn that these meager standards still have not been met... The AZA itself reports that 'more than 50 percent of AZA institutions displaying elephants do not meet AZA Standards for Elephant Management and Care.' This is obviously an industry that either is incapable of or is unwilling to regulate itself.”



The zoo claims that it is best for Jenny to remain in Dallas – among the caretakers she has grown to love. However, research suggests otherwise. In fact, the NY Times summarized the findings of a study first reported in the journal Science:



In a survey of 4,500 captive elephants worldwide, a team of researchers from the U.K., Canada and Kenya found that once you lock up the giant, space-loving beasts, their health suffers, their median life span plummets, and they quit breeding — the last things you would want for a creature you're ostensibly trying to help survive. "Whether or not it's valid to say zoos keep species alive depends on which species you're talking about," says animal-welfare scientist Georgia Mason of the University of Guelph in Ontario . "Many species do well. Elephants don't."

So, while millions of our tax dollars are being funneled into a zoo exhibit that may not be completed for more than a year, Jenny languishes on her 1/4 acre enclosure. Even when the new exhibit is finished, she will have only four acres of space - the size of three football fields. Jenny is an African elephant - the largest land mammal in the world. She weighs more than 10,000 pounds. Keeping her in a 3-acre enclosure would be like expecting a 250 pound linebacker to live his entire life between the goal post and the 20 yard line. Not enough room!

The Morning News says that we shouldn’t micro-manage the Dallas Zoo’s staff. And we trust the zoo staff to make many decisions. But what to do with our elephant is clearly a decision that should be made by Jenny’s real owners – the citizens of Dallas. Tell your elected representatives that the right thing for Jenny is a trip to Tennessee. And it is time to do the right thing.

Courtesy of Joanne Pinson

"I think they should give the elephant to the Detroit Zoo, as they are now a sanctuary. Oh wait a minute, Detroit got rid of their elephants, and donated them to a sanctuary didn't they? Can some body tell me what the hell is going on here. When each starts doing what they want with private agendas and with out the cohesiveness of a unit, they are destined to implode. The state of animals in the circus should be a shining example of "each man for himself."