Posts Tagged ‘Texas’
Queenie and Congress: How to effectively respond to letters from senators and representatives when you don’t get the answer you want
June 29th, 2010 | 
Author: 
Many of you wrote to your members of Congress in the past two weeks to request help in ensuring that the USDA is held responsible for its actions in sending Queenie to a tiny, antiquated exhibit in the San Antonio Zoo. We had long urged that she go to a sanctuary where she could get the special rehabilitative care that she needs after a lifetime of abuse in the circus industry. Instead, the USDA showed itself to be far too enmeshed with the zoo industry by acting as its acquisition arm rather than its regulator.
Several of you have shared with us responses from your senators and representatives indicating that our elected officials don’t understand that the USDA orchestrated Queenie’s transfer to the zoo rather than directing her to a facility where her needs could best be met. Likewise, the USDA appears to be successfully sidestepping the outrageous fact that Queenie’s trainer, Will Davenport, financially benefited from the agency’s deal-making, despite the fact he was found in repeated violation of federal animal welfare law.
We look at any response as a useful “foot in the door” toward getting some real help for Queenie in the form of attention from Congress. The key is to capitalize on that response.
If you have received a letter regarding Queenie from one of your senators or representatives, the next step is to follow up with a phone call to his or her office. (You can do this even if you did not receive a response!) Ask to speak with the aide who covers animal issues, and fill them in, using the following information:
- The USDA crafted a deal in which an abusive elephant trainer, who was repeatedly cited for serious violations of the federal Animal Welfare Act and faced formal charges, financially benefited , ending up $20,000 richer for it.
- Will Davenport’s violations were so egregious that the USDA seized two elephants, Tina and Jewel, in August 2009 because they were in such dire condition. Davenport also “threatened, abused and harassed” APHIS officials in the course of carrying out their duties.
- The USDA’s formal charges against Davenport resulted in $100,000 in assessed fines. But under the USDA’s settlement deal, he never paid a penny in fines and he sold his remaining elephant, Queenie, to the San Antonio Zoo for $20,000.
- The USDA claims to make decisions based on the best interest of each individual animal, yet it failed to ensure that Queenie was sent to a sanctuary where she would have received the specialized rehabilitative care she needed after decades of abuse in the circus. Instead she was sent to a zoo that lacks the space to properly care for even one elephant.
- This represents just one more example of a federal oversight agency that is far too entwined with the industry it is supposed to be regulating, and the American people are tired of it.
Queenie, imprisoned in that tiny zoo cell, is the embodiment of the USDA’s many failures to hold the welfare of its charges above the interests of the industry. Let’s use this opportunity to focus Congressional attention on her, and on the problem elephants face at the hands of the USDA. Please make your follow-up calls today!
If you need additional help in responding to your elected officials or if your senator or representative wishes to help, please contact Deb Robinson at circuses@idausa.org.
This blog was contributed by Deborah Robinson, IDA’s Captive Elephant Specialist.
Posted in Animals in Entertainment, Elephants, Featured News | 
Tags: Circus, Elephants, Exotic Animals, Government, Legal, Queenie, Texas, USDA, Welfare, Wildlife, Zoos | 
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Queenie Needs Your Help More Than Ever!
Urge Senate Agriculture Committee to investigate USDA’s role in sending her to inadequate zoo
After a lifetime of abuse in the circus industry, and over the objections of IDA, elephant experts, and thousands of caring citizens, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) orchestrated the transfer of the elephant Queenie last month to the San Antonio Zoo, as part of a settlement with abusive circus handler Will Davenport. There, she joins the misnamed Lucky, who has spent nearly her entire life confined in an outdated and inadequate pen unfit for one elephant, much less two.
IDA sent a letter to the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, which oversees the USDA, urging a full investigation into the agency’s actions in brokering Queenie’s transfer to San Antonio. The letter details the highly unusual conditions of the settlement, financial pressure exerted on Davenport to send Queenie to the zoo, and approval of a facility that does not provide the specialized rehabilitative care Queenie needs.
What you can do:
Please join us in urging the Senate committee to launch an investigation by taking a quick moment to send a fax to Committee Chair Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) and Ranking Member Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).
Please follow up with a phone call. This is especially important if you live in these senators’ districts.
Sen. Lincoln: 202-224-4843
Sen. Chambliss: 202-224-3521
You can also call the Senate Committee’s main office at (202) 224-2035
Please continue to call USDA Secretary Vilsack’s office and tell him of your dismay over Queenie’s situation. You may be directed to another number but please follow through – it’s vital that the Secretary knows the widespread concern over Queenie is not dying down. Phone: (202) 720-3631
Queenie has endured many decades of intense confinement, abusive training, constant travel and neglect, and she is entitled to a true retirement in a sanctuary that can provide the stable environment and care she needs. Please don’t hesitate; send your fax today!
Posted in Animals in Entertainment, Elephants, Featured News, Wildlife |
Tags: Circus, Elephants, Endangered Species, Exotic Animals, Government, Legal, Texas, Zoos |
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USDA Sentences Queenie to the San Antonio Zoo
The PAWS Asian habitat, where Queenie could have roamed free
IDA has just learned that an agreement has been signed between Will Davenport and the USDA, in which Davenport has agreed to turn Queenie over to the San Antonio Zoo as part of a settlement with the agency regarding charges against him for multiple violations of the Animal Welfare Act. The agency gave Davenport no other choice but the zoo.
Months ago, the PAWS sanctuary sent the USDA a formal offer to provide Queenie with a lifetime home, where she could wander a 40-acre Asian elephant habitat in the company of other elephants. Instead, the USDA made Queenie’s transfer to the San Antonio Zoo a condition the settlement with Davenport. If he did not agree to their terms, he faced significant fines and possibly jail time.
San Antonio Zoo, which has chosen to keep its current elephant Lucky alone for more than three years rather than find a better home for her, has less than a half acre of space, which is not sufficient for one elephant, much less two. And the Zoo has no long-term plans to hold Asian elephants, having stated that it will ship them off as soon as they complete a planned African exhibit for African elephants. Further, Lucky is known to have been aggressive toward her former cage-mate Alport, making introductions in the Zoo’s tiny elephant display dangerous for the elephants. Queenie has displayed similar tendencies, making them a poor match.
You will remember that WIll Davenport’s elephants, Tina and Jewel, were taken from him in August 2009 after years of ongoing and repeated violations of veterinary care and safe handling requirements. Reportedly because of grave concerns over Jewel’s apparently fragile health status, they were taken to the San Diego Zoo where they were provided with needed veterinary care. Although IDA would have preferred that the elephants be retired to one of the two natural-habitat sanctuaries in the country, we were pleased that Tina and Jewel were getting the specialized care they needed for recovery.
San Antonio Zoo enclosure - not fit for one elephant, much less two
At that time, Davenport surrendered his USDA license to exhibit animals, but he kept Queenie, who has been held on his Leggett, TX., property ever since. IDA has been working to get her situation investigated by a law enforcement authority.
What you can do to help
Call Secretary Vilsack today at (202) 720 – 3631
Tell him that his agency ignored the better choice for Queenie. Tell him he MUST remedy this terrible decision now.
This blog was contributed by Deborah Robinson, IDA’s Captive Elephant Specialist.
Posted in Animals in Entertainment, Elephants, Wildlife |
Tags: Elephants, Endangered Species, Legal, Queenie, Texas, Zoos |
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The Top 10 Worst Zoos in 2009
Watoto at the Woodland Park Zoo waiting to get out.
IDA just released its 2009 list of the Ten Worst Zoos for Elephants, which exposes the hidden suffering of elephants in zoos. In its sixth year, the list highlights how confinement of these giants to tiny enclosures wreaks havoc on their physical and psychological health and leads to premature death for many. For the first time, the list includes a Canadian entry, the Toronto Zoo.
We’ve already been inundated with calls from the media from cities across North America including Honolulu, Toledo, Houston, Chicago (Brookfield Zoo) and Toronto, helping to bring attention to the plight of elephants suffering in zoos.
See the full list of zoos, plus two new inductees into the Worst Zoos for Elephants Hall of Shame, by clicking here.
Posted in Animals in Entertainment, Elephants, Featured News |
Tags: Arizona, Bronx, Brookfield, Canada, Elephants, Honolulu, Houston, Illinois, Los Angeles, New York, Ohio, Oregon, San Antonio, Seattle, Texas, Toledo, Top 10, Topeka, Toronto, Zoos |
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