Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants

Lily Tomlin and FOWPZE

Lily Tomlin appeared at a press release in Seattle on Monday, by invitation of Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants. We appreciate everyone who made this event such a wonderful success.

Cathy Sorbo wrote a great column in the Seattle Post Globe, entitled Zoo Directors in Denial. Here’s an excerpt:

The directors at the Woodland Park Zoo have long been in denial about the utter wrongness of keeping elephants captive on the zoo’s partitioned acre, and continued pleas to emancipate them (cost-free) to a 2,700-acre sanctuary in Tennessee have been met with defiance, excuses and refusal to give the animals up.

On April 27, Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants were able to organize a press conference at the Phinney Ridge Community Center with with Catherine Doyle (head of In Defense of Animals) and activist/actress Lily Tomlin who has been a vocal advocate for the release of zoo elephants for some time.

The message was simple: elephants are dying prematurely in zoos due to their inability to roam great distances. They suffer with the deadly herpes virus, foot and joint ailments and neurosis. There is a place for our zoo elephants Chai, Watoto and Bamboo at the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee and FWPZE are doing what they can to raise public awareness needed to get these great animals to a place where they can walk, run and swim as was originally intended.

King5 has an article and video on the story: Lily Tomlin joins dispute over Seattle zoo elephants

From the Seattle P-I: Actress Lily Tomlin demands Woodland Park Zoo release elephants

In the Ballard News-Tribune: Comedian Lily Tomlin advocates sending zoo’s elephants to sanctuary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Renowned Actress Joins Effort to send Suffering Elephants to a Sanctuary

Lily Tomlin

Seattle, WA – Acclaimed actress, comedian, writer and producer Lily Tomlin will appear at a news conference with Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, a campaign of Northwest Animal Rights Network and national zoo watchdog group, In Defense of Animals to make an impassioned plea to the City of Seattle and Woodland Park Zoo to send the elephants Watoto, Chai and Bamboo to a sanctuary.

What: News conference with Lily Tomlin
When: Monday, April 27, 2009 at 11am
Where: Phinney Ridge Neighborhood Center, 6532 Phinney Ave. N., Seattle, WA 98103 Room #1 [directions]
Who: Lily Tomlin, Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants (FOWPZE), In Defense of Animals, elephant advocates and concerned citizens
What else? Doughnuts and coffee

Tomlin’s visit comes on the heels of FOWPZE’s shocking finding that the elephants at Woodland Park Zoo are locked indoors in small, barren rooms for 16 – 17 hours a day for about 7 months out of the year. In contrast, free-ranging elephants walk tens of miles a day and are active for 20 hours a day.

“Elephants were never meant to live in the confinement of small urban zoos,” states Tomlin. “They are the world’s largest land mammals and they need to move to stay healthy.”

“The intensive and prolonged confinement of the elephants at Woodland Park Zoo is causing serious physical and mental suffering,” adds FOWPZE co-founder Alyne Fortgang. She says Zoo medical records paint a disturbing picture, with the elephants suffering painful joint and foot disorders, arthritis, and obesity. They also display abnormal stereotypic behaviors such as repetitive pacing and swaying.

“We’re happy to welcome Lily Tomlin to the fight for these elephants’ lives,” says Nancy Pennington, FOWPZE co-founder. “Woodland Park Zoo cannot provide the space, climate or habitat the elephants need to live a decent life.”

Tomlin has a long history of advocating for elephants. Turning her attention to Seattle, Tomlin will urge that the humane decision be made to send the elephants to the 2,700-acre Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee. The Elephant Sanctuary has agreed to transport and care for the elephants for life at no cost to the City of Seattle or Woodland Park Zoo.