International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos Special Alert!
June 16th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Justice for Queenie: Tell the USDA It’s Time to Protect Elephant Welfare Instead of Zoos’ Interests
The International Day of Action for Elephants in Zoos (IDAEZ) takes place this Saturday, with more than 30 events in five countries. You can help the elephants, even if you don’t live near a zoo, by sending a message that the USDA must put animal welfare over zoos’ interests.
The first step is to ensure the USDA is held accountable for its actions in sending Queenie to the San Antonio Zoo, which does not have the space needed to properly care for elephants. If you’ve been following this elephant’s tragic story on www.HelpElephants.com and this blog, you know that IDA has been fighting for Queenie for the last three years, and that we’re not giving up the battle for her life. Thanks to the thousands of you who have called and written so many times on her behalf, hope remains alive.
But it’s time to use our voices again for Queenie, who is the victim of an apparently all-too-cozy relationship between the USDA and the zoo and circus industries.
Consider the facts: After multiple violations of federal animal welfare law; having two elephants, Tina and Jewel, seized because they were in grave condition; and after having federal charges pressed against him, Queenie’s former circus trainer, Will Davenport, ended up $20,000 richer and paid no fines! That’s just not right.
Yes, we wanted Queenie freed from her misery, but the USDA failed in its mandate to protect animal welfare by directing her to the wrong place. An elephant who has suffered abuse and neglect for more than 50 years, purely for the sake of public display, should have been sent to the peace and solitude of a natural-habitat elephant sanctuary, where she could get the special rehabilitative care she needs.
At a time when the American public is fed up with the lax oversight of federal agencies that are far too enmeshed with the industries they’re meant to regulate, we need to speak out and demand justice for Queenie.
You can take action now. Send a quick message to your elected members of Congress by clicking here.
Stay tuned this week for information on more ways you can help elephants even if you don’t live near a zoo with an IDAEZ event on Saturday, including a secret action to be announced later this week.
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In the overall scheme of things, I’m an Animal Advocate; my current battle is for Wild Equines. But wait – I’ll draw the correlation in a moment.
The Bureau of Land Management, a satellite of the same umbrella corporation (the Department of the Interior) as the Department of Agriculture says it takes 1200 acres of rangeland to sustain a single Wild Equine. Yet according to the USDA, an animal 5 times the size of the Horse, the Elephant, will remain perfectly healthy in the confines of a 20×20 zoo enclosure.
I submit – the health & well-being of ANY animal is important to a government agency only if those animals have outstanding financial representation – such as the Cattleman’s Lobby, the Dairy Industry or any business that trafficks in misery for a profit.
So which is it? Does it take a lotta land for a relatively small animal and just a smidge for a really big one? I really need to know. It’s hard to present intelligent arguments when contending with convoluted logic like this.
Who hires these guys??!
If I weren’t so angry, I’d sit and have a good cry.
No animal should be in a zoo, it’s unfair for us to say we need to see them and be educated, it’s not 1900 and something, this is 2010. Humans know it is unfair and cruel to do this, please do the right thing by these poor creatures, give them the best that they deserve. The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. We know this, now act on it please, thank you.
Queenie has not had a chance to enjoy a natural life. She has suffered mentally, emotionally and physically in captivity and been kept like a prisoner.
She needs the peace and solitude of a natural-habitat elephant sanctuary, where she can spend her ramaining years receiving the special rehabilitative care she needs.
Please give her a chance to enjoy the feeling of freedom, to roam wherever she chooses, free from her shackles at last.
It seems most of the zoos I have tried to submit a comment on their Facebook page are immediately deleting anything about negative about their use of elephants in zoos. What cowards! I will go back another day when they are not watching their facebook page so closely and submit my comments!