13 replies to this topic

[LiveForTomorrow]

Cutest elephant was just born and is playing with her mom in some wood chips.  Contracts just surfaced which give ownership to a private company that does traveling shows in a month.

[ShadowBoy86x]

hows a baby elephant get a job before me? damn economy

[LiveForTomorrow]

haha, why did I laugh at that

[Simbi Laveau]

[wolfknight]

That is not right at all. That baby needs to be with it mama for as long as it can be. Screw the traveling show.

[Taun]

I'm assuming that the zoo is doing this for the money (why else?)... Perhaps they should have announced a "Pennies for the Pachyderm" drive and gotten kids (and adults) to collect pennies (or better) to keep the babies...

Travelling circuses are NOT good for the animals... It has been documented over and over again...  If it was a travelling "petting zoo", where the animals are well treated - perhaps... but not a circus!...

Shame on the Oregon Zoo...

[Taun]

I just did a little research and number crunching and found out that it costs about $5,000 a month to care for and feed an elephant... That is $60,000 a year... with an average life expectancy of 60 years that's $3,600,000 for the lifetime of the elephant...

Oregon is home to some very wealthy people...  The guy that own's Nike comes to mind...  He donates tons of money every year to the University of Oregon - and his company fully supports the Universities Football team... By all accounts in excess of $3 million A YEAR!...

Maybe just one year they could give that money to the local zoo to sponsor a baby elephant for it's entire life...

So come on Mr. Phil Knight and Nike...  "Pennies for a pacyderm?"...


edit to add: That $3 million a year to Oregon University is for uniforms for the sports team only!

Edited by Taun, 05 December 2012 - 01:41 PM.

[LiveForTomorrow]

Ya, thats a great idea.  The money is def out there.  It just convincing people and gathering it up.  I have to imagine it is a lesser of two evils kind of thing, where the zoo needs to make money to continue their operation and have access to breeding pairs (still not saying its in anyway right). If its for profit, then its just horrible.

[redhen]

Yup, time for another Brigid Brophy quote;

“Whenever people say, 'We mustn't be sentimental,' you can take it they are about to do something cruel. And if they add, 'We must be realistic,' they mean they are going to make money out of it.”

[LiveForTomorrow]

Looks like the oregon zoo has got a lot of attention and posted this on their facebook.

We are grateful for your support and commitment to our vision. Thank you for allowing us to set the record straight regarding the future of Rose-Tu’s calf. The plan is still and has always been that she'll spend her life exploring a variety of habitats and terrain, from rolling meadow to hilly forest, here at the Oregon Zoo. Our new habitat Elephant Lands has been designed specifically to provide families of elephants with choice over how they spend their time and socialize with each other. Our vision for the future of elephants includes generations of thriving family groups living in an enriching and natural environment with opportunities for the public to connect, learn and take action. Read more about Elephant Lands here: http://bit.ly/WHOyom

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All this public attention hopefully at the very least solidified this plan and ensured the 4th and 6th offspring remain at the zoo also.

[Taun]

Excellent news... It's amazing how quickly bad PR can make people turn into saints....

[rashore]

Well, according to Have Trunk Will Travel, they never had any intention of laying claim to any of Rose-Tu's offspring. HTWT has a male that is stud to Rose-Tu for 6 babies. The zoo gets title to 1,3,5, and WTWT gets title to 2,4,6. Apparently that's pretty normal.

[Taun]

rashore, on 05 December 2012 - 05:13 PM, said:

Well, according to Have Trunk Will Travel, they never had any intention of laying claim to any of Rose-Tu's offspring. HTWT has a male that is stud to Rose-Tu for 6 babies. The zoo gets title to 1,3,5, and WTWT gets title to 2,4,6. Apparently that's pretty normal.

Ahhh... That explains it...  An "Ownership" issue not a "Possession" issue... Got it...

Thanks rashore!

[LiveForTomorrow]

To say that HTWT never had any intent to assume control of the elephant at any point in its life is hard to say. After something like this blows up in the media, of course it is going to change their position and they are going to release statements putting them in the best light.

The Oregon Zoo does say this is common practice, which may be, yet they give an example of another zoo being the owner of an animal that is placed at their zoo, not a private company, let alone a private company that deals in the business of exploiting elephants.

I personally don't even like they are in a contract with a business that has a past of elephant abuse, and the entire business of an elephant show no matter how humane you try and make it should not be inline with the ethics of the zoo.

They said they are using HTWT's elephant to increase genetic diversity among their population which is important. But I wonder if they could have not found another male elephant somewhere else.

Another question is where does HTWT get their elephants from? Do they breed their own elephants? At some point they need to replenish their stock of traveling show elephants, so it seems reasonable to me that this clause in the contract gave them an avenue to do this if needed. Of course now, with all the public attention this very unlikely.

Edited by LiveForTomorrow, 05 December 2012 - 11:16 PM.