A two-year fight over Australia taking eight baby elephants from Thailand has reached a make-or-break situation.
Taronga Park Zoo and Melbourne Zoo are now set to see the elephants endure the journey to Australia only to end up as specimens at the zoos. The elephants are believed to be around three years old.
Activists from Bangkok-based Friends of the Asian Elephant (FAE) fiercely oppose the move and blocked the elephants from leaving Kanchanaburi last month as they were loaded into 10-wheeler trucks to endure the 130 km ride to board a cargo plane in Bangkok bound for Australia. The activists had a sign that read “Stop Exploiting Thai Elephants” and this standoff forced officials to abandon plans to move the elephants.
It is believed that the elephants were captured illegally in the wild and FAE has requested that DNA tests be done to ascertain this – which authorities have refused. The drastic change of habitat will harm the welfare of the elephants.
In Australia, both the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Australian Humane Society have called for the elephants to stay in their homeland. Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has commended the Thai protesters and noted that “Taronga Zoo wants these Thai elephants to boost its profits, not for conservation…Elephants are very difficult to breed in zoos, with no captive breeding program ever being successful in Australasia.”
Please e-mail the Thai Embassy in Australia now and insist that the trade be stopped. Urge them to leave the elephants in the wild where they belong, and use zoos as sanctuaries for animals rescued from circuses, marine parks, and other exploitative forms of entertainment.
austembassy.bangkok@dfat.gov.au
thaitrade@ozemail.com.au
info@thailand.net.au
info@thaiembassy.org.au
Zoos rob elephants of their most basic needs, including social companionship and adequate space to exercise. Zoos keep elephants in unnaturally small groups and routinely shuffle elephants between facilities with callous disregard for the special bonds between elephant friends. In the wild, elephants maintain strong family bonds — baby elephants are not usually weaned until they are at least 4 years old, and young elephants stay with their mothers for many years to learn important social and survival skills. Females remain with their mothers and other members of their herds for their entire lives.
Zoos operate under the misleading veil of conservation and education when, in reality, these proud and sensitive animals are kept merely as tourist draws to boost sagging profits. Captive breeding will never contribute to the survival of the species because elephants breed poorly in captivity and the offspring who do survive can never be released into the wild.
For more information about zoos, please go to WildlifePimps.com.
Take Care Friends
LOve light and blessings to you all
Sarah
hugz and kisses
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2 comments:
Maybe all zoos are bad - but I always enjoyed the visit to the zoo, after all, I don't have the opportunity to travel all over the world to see the different animals.
Also some species would be extinct today if not for the zoos.
As far as this issue in particular - I am not all up on it. I know often zoos have 'rescued' animals that would have otherwise just been killed anyways. I am not saying zoo life is great for an animal, but it is probably better than death.
for me personaly if the animals are housed in a great way that gives them room, a stimulating enviroment, social action, they are given rest from people and are free to do as they please (you know the ones i mean) like the apes at the melbourne zoo. Then I would say its just ok .... But hear we are talking about elephants big fuckers .... they need miles and miles to move around and many others to have a social interaction not to mention any form of semi natural soundrings ... Now this is not what they are going to get at these zoos just to start perhaps at dubbo open plain zoo they might get something like this but not an inner city zoo!!!! now there are plenty of animals being saved from circuis etc we dont need to go and catch and cage baby wild animals !!!! ... I do know that some form of zoo may have some place in our world but its a long way off and for some animals it will never be a happy place ... but then who would come to see the lonly old zebra anyway ......
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