IDA Writing Alert: I am an elephant
April 20th, 2007 2:40 pm by Kelly GarbatoPlease also take a moment to cast your vote in this poll on The Philadelphia Daily News’ website:
Daily News Poll: Do you think elephants belong in zoos?
I have no clue how long it’s been up, but it appears to still be registering new votes…
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From: In Defense of Animals – takeaction [at] idausa.org
Date: Apr 19, 2007 9:51 PM
Subject: Writing Alert: I am an elephant
The Philadelphia Daily News printed an opinion piece on the suffering elephants endure in zoos and circus. Please write a letter to the editor of The Philadelphia Daily News thanking them for publishing the piece. Send letters to views [at] phillynews.com.
Read “I am an elephant” online.
By Stu Bykofshy
I AM AN ELEPHANT.
I was not born for your amusement any more than you were born for mine.
If you see me in the zoo, and especially in the circus, which arrived here yesterday, I am not there willingly.
I was kidnapped and carried far, far away from my home and my family. I might have been an adult, but was more likely a baby when captured. Some “brave” hunter might have killed my mother – who could be dangerous – and sold me to a zoo or circus as an orphan.
Elephants have large families, as you may know, each headed by a female. When a female is born into the family herd, she never leaves.
Closely and happily, we travel together, eat together, play together, rest together. For elephants, every herd is a “village” in which the baby is cared for by its mother, and her sisters, and her mother. Being connected to family is as much a part of our being as our floppy ears. It harms us to be separated from our family. Can you understand that?
Do you think I cannot feel loneliness and despair?
As you may know, we elephants grieve for our dead. We mourn for our family. Being disconnected from our family is like death for us.
No news flash there – an elephant living in Philadelphia is in an unnatural environment. That is what we suffer when we are captured, and kidnapped, and sold.
I am an elephant.
I know you love seeing me, in the circus or in the zoo.
I know some of you feel that, “It isn’t a circus without elephants,” or, “It isn’t a zoo without elephants.”
You are thinking about yourself – what you want, what you like.
Please think about me.
I am an elephant.
Do you think I was born to be chained to a stake, when my spirit cries to cross vast savannas? Do you think I was made to be pushed into cramped circus railway cars, to be hauled around the country like furniture?
I perform for eight minutes for your pleasure, then spend endless hours in misery.
Some zoos try hard to accommodate my physical and psychological needs, but few succeed.
My first need is spiritual and that was crushed when they stole me from my family in Africa.
In Africa, my numbers are dwindling as poachers slaughter my kind for a few pounds of ivory.
Imagine killing a majestic, five-ton animal for scraps of ivory. Does that offend your sense of decency?
And yet you don’t think twice about the slow death of imprisoning me in a barren cage.
You believe letting your children get close to a captive elephant will make them appreciate me. Must that come at my expense? Can’t they learn from videos, DVDs and Web casts, without my suffering?
Can’t you teach them about the dignity of living animals by leaving us alone?
When you and your children see me do a circus “trick,” you are delighted.
You don’t ask yourself, “How did they make that elephant stand on his head?” I never stand on my head in the wild.
Was it positive reinforcement, as Ringling says? Was it through abuse, as undercover videos have shown?
I am an elephant.
My second need is for physical stimulation, by walking. My long legs are built to move. I walk a dozen or more miles a day, when I am free to.
No circus, and few zoos, give me what I need.
And still I hear you want to see me in a zoo, you want to see me perform circus “tricks.”
You want to see me because you love me, you say.
If you love me, don’t do this to me.
I am an elephant.
E-mail stubyko [at] phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977.
For recent columns: go.philly.com/byko.
You can use the following points to help you in your letter or visit www.helpelephants.com for more information.
*Elephants are highly complex, social animals who live in extended family groups and travel over thirty miles a day. Today’s zoos are unable to meet the physical and social needs of elephants. These needs include space, adequate exercise, and extended social groups.
*Elephants in zoos suffer from captivity-induced physical and psychological health problems due to lack of space. Health problems include debilitating foot and joint problems, arthritis, digestive disorders, stereotypic behaviors (neurotic behaviors resulting from severe confinement). Other problems include reproductive system shutdown (flatliners), and high infant mortality rate.
*The AZA, a zoo industry trade organization, provides a set of standards that are insufficient for the proper maintenance of elephants. These standards include a minimum outdoor enclosure size of 1,800 square feet for one elephant, the equivalent of six parking lot spaces. The standards also allow the prolonged chaining of elephants.
*As the largest land mammal, elephants are genetically designed to move and forage most of the day; this constant movement is necessary for their psychological and physical well-being.
*Zoos routinely move elephants, and other animals, from one zoo to another with little to no consideration for their social bonds. In the wild female elephants never leave their mothers and male elephants have complex social structures with other bulls and females. No elephant in the wild lives in constant solitary confinement.
Letters should be less than 200 words. Please do not send attachments. Please remember to include your full name, address, and phone number (for verification purposes–street names and phone numbers will not be published) and not to use any wording in this alert or cross-post it to other lists. Thanks and good luck!
If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for In Defense of Animals Action Center.
In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization with more than 85,000 members and supporters dedicated to ending the abuse and exploitation of animals by protecting their rights and welfare. IDA’s efforts include educational events, cruelty investigations, boycotts, grassroots activism, and hands-on rescue through our sanctuaries in Mississippi and Cameroon, Africa.
In Defense of Animals 3010 Kerner Blvd., San Rafael, California 94901 – P: (415) 388-9641 F: (415) 388-0388
email: ida [at] idausa.org
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