The following articles, from the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun Times, present great opportunities for letters to the editor about keeping wild animals captive for human entertainment. A great resource is www.SaveWildElephants.com
The Chicago Tribune takes letters at http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/site/chi-lettertotheeditor.customform
The Chicago Sun Times takes letters at http://www.suntimes.com/geninfo/feedback.html
Chicago Tribune
February 24, 2006 Friday
METRO ; ZONE NNW; Pg. 3
Doubts raised as aldermen consider zoo-elephant plan
By Gary Washburn, Tribune staff reporter
Chicago aldermen heard horror stories and tales of hope and liberation Thursday involving real-life characters with names like Winky, Wanda and Tarra.
All are elephants and all have spent what critics described as desperately unhappy stretches of their lives in zoos or circuses.
Details of their stories were laid out at a more than four-hour City Council committee meeting on a proposed ordinance that would impose new space and handling standards for pachyderms in Chicago.
No vote was taken when the testimony came to an end. And there were questions whether the measure ever would make it out of committee because of its impact on Lincoln Park Zoo, which would be unable to meet the proposed standard of five acres each of indoor and outdoor space per elephant on its compact lakefront campus.
The three elephants kept by Lincoln Park Zoo all have died since late 2004, sparking a wave of controversy. Zoo officials have said that no new animals will live at the facility pending completion of scientific research on elephants in zoos.
Part way through the debate, Ald. James Balcer (11th), a Vietnam veteran, appeared to question the council's priorities.
"We talk about mistreatment of elephants," he said. "This morning I just read in the paper [that] two people, their sons were killed in Iraq. They can't even find out ... how they died. That troubles me. Again, I am for this ordinance, and again--ahh, forget it."
And Ald. Emma Mitts (37th), who voiced support for the humane treatment of animals, nevertheless said she wondered "why we are [talking] about elephants when children are being abused."
But Ald. Richard Mell (33rd) said the council is known for taking on a wide range of issues, and animal-rights advocates at the meeting insisted the proper treatment of elephants merits the city's attention.
"When we make them suffer, our humanity is also diminished," said Dr. Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist who began his work with elephants in Africa nearly 30 years ago. Lindsay outlined the impact of confinement on huge animals that "are designed to move" and are on the go up to 18 hours a day in their natural habitats.
Lindsay and other experts told the committee that elephants cooped up in small spaces suffer ailments that include arthritis, infections and psychological damage that sometimes results in aggressiveness. But the animals recover when they are moved from zoos and circuses to sanctuaries, they said.
Officials of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association and the International Elephant Foundation contended that elephants are treated humanely at accredited institutions. And they said that allowing Americans to experience elephants at zoos is vital to generating support for conservation efforts in the animals' native lands.
The City Council is being "pressured" as part of a nationwide campaign by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said Beth Stevens, president of the zoo association.
"This ordinance is not about elephants in Chicago," Stevens said. "It is an attempt to make Chicago a national example of getting ... elephants out of zoos [today], and tomorrow getting other species--giraffes, lions, gorillas, out of zoos.
Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), the ordinance's sponsor and head of the council's Parks and Recreation Committee, scoffed at the "conspiracy theory."
"I am personally insulted that you would think that any one of us would be used by any organization ... to dominate the zoo world," Smith said.
Steven Thompson, a senior Lincoln Park Zoo official, opposes the ordinance. Its standards are "arbitrary [and] subjective," he said.
gwashburn@tribune.com
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Chicago Sun Times
February 24, 2006 Friday
NEWS; Pg. 06
All noise, no action on elephant ban: Council panel weighs in on zoo crackdown but doesn't vote
Andrew Herrmann, The Chicago Sun-Times
He shares his name with a certain buck-toothed rodent, so perhaps Ald. William M. Beavers (7th) has some special insight into animals.
As a City Council committee Thursday was debating an ordinance that would effectively prevent Lincoln Park Zoo from hosting elephants, Beavers opined some wild creatures might prefer captivity.
An elephant in a zoo, he said, "don't have to worry about no poacher.'' With regular feedings, "he don't have to worry about food, either.''
In response, Ald. Richard F. Mell (33rd) suggested sending a "psychologist" to Africa to find some of those animals Beavers believes would like to live in Lincoln Park.
The banter offered a bit of levity in the four-hour-plus hearing, a meeting that also included Mell's suggesting, tongue-in-cheek, that Northerly Island might be converted to an elephant sanctuary.
MORE PRESSING MATTER
Few in City Hall give the proposed ordinance much chance of being presented to the full Council, much less enacted. Mell's Rules Committee adjourned without a vote.
But the hearing did draw top officials from the U.S. animal rights movement, the zoo industry and representatives from Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
The ordinance, sponsored by Ald. Mary Ann Smith (48th), would require zoos in Chicago to provide at least 10 acres per elephant -- a physical impossibility for Lincoln Park Zoo.
Ordinance supporter Keith Lindsay, a conservation biologist, said elephants he observed in southern Kenya are on the move 18 hours a day. Foot problems on less-mobile zoo elephants are not seen in their wild counterparts, he said.
Lincoln Park Zoo vice president Steven D. Thompson questioned whether Lindsay's findings applied to zoo elephants. "How can data on the use of space by wild elephants be appropriate for establishing space needs in zoos?'' said Thompson.
Ald. James A. Balcer (11th) had a more pressing topic in mind after reading in the Chicago Sun-Times how "two people whose sons died in Iraq -- they can't even find out what happened. That troubles me.''
Choking up, Balcer said, "I'm for this ordinance, but, ah, forget it,'' and bolted from the chamber.
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(END OF TRIBUNE AND SUN TIMES ARTICLES)
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