Help Send Elephant to a Sanctuary, Not Another Zoo

We encourage you to take action by May 25, 2005

Help Send Elephant to a Sanctuary, Not Another Zoo

INSTRUCTIONS TO RESPOND VIA THE WEB:
If you have access to a web browser, you can take action on this alert by going to the following URL:

http://ga0.org/campaign/Wankie/



Your letter will be addressed and sent to:
Corporate Zoo Sponsors

----THIS LETTER WILL BE SENT IN YOUR NAME---- Dear [decision maker name automatically inserted here],

I understand that you are a corporate sponsor of either the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, or the San Diego Zoo. I am writing to ask you to please use your influence as a sponsor to persuade the zoos to send Wankie, the sole surviving elephant at the Lincoln Park Zoo, to a sanctuary instead of another zoo.

Following the untimely and tragic deaths of two elephants at the Lincoln Park Zoo within months of one another, Chicago Alderman George Cardenas introduced a resolution recommending that Wankie be sent to a permanent home at a sanctuary and that the Zoo's elephant exhibit be closed for good. The resolution is widely supported by the community and members of Chicago's City Council, and has been scheduled for a public hearing on May 12.
However, the Lincoln Park Zoo has a vested interest in keeping Wankie within the zoo system, so they are rushing her off to another zoo to prevent Chicago's concerned citizens and elected officials from having a say in the matter.

If moved to the Hogle Zoo in Utah, Wankie will be subjected to the same captivity-induced problems that contributed to the deaths of her companions, including extremely painful degenerative joint disorders and recurrent foot infections from lack of space and exercise. Forcing Wankie to live in a zoo puts her at serious risk of dying prematurely, as almost all elephants in zoos do. Elephants in the wild typically live to about 70 years old, yet more than half of the 36 elephants who died at AZA-accredited facilities since 2000 never reached their 40th birthday. The Hogle Zoo will have a real public relations mess on its hands if Wankie dies before her time, because people are not going to forget about Wankie simply because she's no longer in Chicago.

The best choice for Wankie would be to send her to one of two sanctuaries in the U.S. The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in California are humane alternatives to zoos, providing therapeutic, naturalistic environs in which elephants can live and thrive. As a corporate sponsor, please ask the zoo you are sponsoring to send Wankie to a sanctuary instead of another zoo. Thank you.

----END OF LETTER TO BE SENT----

Sincerely,
YOUR NAME




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