Apr 29, 2007 9:17 pm US/Central
Elephant Leaving Philadelphia Zoo After 41 Years
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) ―
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Dulary the elephant is leaving the Philadelphia Zoo after 41 years, to go to a sanctuary for retirement.
CBS
After 41 years at the Philadelphia Aoo, Dulary the elephant will be leaving Monday.
Friends came to sign a going away card for Dulary, who is headed for retirement, because the zoo is closing its elephant exhibit, reacting in part to pressure from animal rights groups who believe they suffer in cramped enclosures.
"The minute as an organization you stop listening to your audience, your guest, or any one of the groups that that are out there, I think you run the risk of becoming irrelevant," said Vikram Dewan, present and CEO of Philadelphia Zoo.
Philadelphia is not alone. Zoos in San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and the Bronx Zoo have all decided to phase out their elephants.
Over the years, most elephants in the U.S. have been confined to houses and pens, that today seem woefully inadequate for animals that, in nature, live in highly organized herds and migrate over great distances.
In the Tennessee sanctuary where Dulary is headed, she'll have more than 20 companions and 2,700 acres to roam.
"Somebody's gonna like her and she's gonna like somebody, and she's gonna melt into that herd," says Andrew Baker, Vice President of animal programs at the Philadelphia Zoo.
The three remaining elephants in Philadelphia will also be sent away in the coming months, to a conservation center in Pennsylvania that will breed the animals for zoos taking a different approach. Instead of closing exhibits, they're looking to expand and improve their elephant habitats.
The Los Angeles, Denver, Albuquerque, San Diego and Oregon zoos are among them. In Oregon, Mike Keele says soon they may offer the only chance for many Americans to see a live elephant.
"The Oregon Zoo wants to continue here with elephants in our region because we believe it really inspires our community to take action, meaningful action in creating a better future for wildlife," says Mike Keele of the Oregon Zoo.
The departure of Dulary, after 41 years, is symbolic. Philadelphia's zoo is the nation's oldest, and when it opened in 1874 its first exhibit was an elephant.
But by this fall, only statues of the elephants will remain.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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