In Defense of Animals (IDA)
and
Free the Oregon Zoo Elephants (FOZE)
April 2015
RIP, Rama, a male Asian elephant who suffered and was euthanized at the Oregon Zoo due to captivity-related conditions. IDA sends our condolences to Free the Oregon Zoo Elephants (FOZE); acknowledging their long-time local efforts to protect Rama and the seven other Asian elephants at the zoo, including Packy, Rama's father who has tuberculosis and needs to go to a sanctuary.
Sign an online petition here.
And/or better yet,make direct contact:
Tom Hughes
President, Oregon Metro Council
(503) 797-1889
Packy is the largest and oldest elephant in the
Oregon Zoo herd and weighs in at 12,500
pounds, though his weight fluctuates due to various issues, including
reactions to drug treatments. He was born to Thonglaw and Belle, on April
14, 1962 at the Oregon Zoo and is the first elephant born in the Western
Hemisphere in 44 years. No thanks to "elephant breeding," Packy has sired 7 calves, including Rama
(recently euthanized due to captivity-related issues). Packy, due
to some aggression issues that he exhibited towards the other elephants, has
spent most of his life alone at the zoo. In 2014, Packy became infected with
TB and is being treated with TB drugs and is in quarantine.
Rama
From Free the Oregon Zoo Elephants (FOZE) website:
At the age of 53, Packy is the oldest living elephant in North America. Over the course of his 53 years in captivity, he has suffered from a variety of illnesses and conditions including the pain of chronic foot problems, foot injuries, recurring skin lesions on the side of his head from sleeping on a cement floor, and an active, life threatening form of tuberculosis, all of which are directly related to his captivity. For 53 years, he has been deprived of roaming natural, open spaces, feeling the earth beneath his feet and being part of a bachelor herd. For 53 years, he has been confined to a cement cell and a small artificial lot where he is put on display. Free the Oregon Zoo elephants demands the Oregon Zoo release their desperate hold on Packy by transferring him to a sanctuary in a warm, dry climate. There, he will be able to live his remaining years in comfort and freedom.
From IDA:
RIP, Rama, a male Asian elephant who suffered and was euthanized at the
Oregon Zoo due to captivity-related conditions. IDA sends our condolences to
Free the Oregon Zoo Elephants (FOZE); acknowledging their long-time local
efforts to protect Rama and the seven other Asian elephants at the zoo,
including Packy, Rama's father who has tuberculosis and needs to go to a
sanctuary. IDA agrees with FOZE that Metro Council, the zoo’s governing
body, and zoo officials continue to fail to protect the health and wellbeing
of the elephants there. Six years after the zoo received money "to provide
more humane conditions for the elephants," the elephants continue to suffer
and die as Rama did, in miserably inadequate conditions.
The zoo has yet to explain why it misled voters in selling a 2008 bond
measure about plans for an offsite preserve to provide more space for the
zoo's elephants. The elephants have never benefited from the whopping $125
million received by the zoo from the zoo bond measure that voters believed
would improve the intolerable conditions for the elephants there. With a
measure fueled by compassion, the actual use of the money has been spent on
programs that are harming the elephants further by recklessly and
dangerously breeding them - the opposite of helping them!
Thank you for everything you do for animals!
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