Hockey Player Offers $100K to Move Elephant to a Sanctuary | Let’s help: Three actions to take

1. Please click on and sign: Free Lucy the Elephant from Lifelong Imprisonment

2. Please click on and sign: Ask Edmonton to Let Lucy Pack Her Trunk!

3. Please also send a letter via post or email, there are TWO SAMPLE LETTERS below from which to choose


From Change
By Annie Hartnett

Everyone knows that no one fights harder than a hockey player. So I cheered when I learned that former NHL player Georges Laraque is fighting for the freedom of Lucy, the solitary elephant kept in Edmonton’s Valley Zoo. Laraque has offered the city of Edmonton $100,000 if Lucy is released to a sanctuary in a warmer climate.

It’s 1°F in Edmonton right now, where Georges Laraque and Lucy the elephant both live. Hockey players might not mind the cold, but Asian elephants certainly do. Lucy doesn’t have a climate controlled habitat at the Valley Zoo, and the poor pachyderm has been forced to live in a completely unsuitable environment. She’s also housed by her lonesome, even though elephants are highly sociable creatures.

Given her living conditions, it’s not surprising that Lucy is in poor health. The 35-year-old elephant suffers from upper respiratory issues, arthritis, and a chronic foot ailment.

Laraque writes in a public letter to the mayor of Edmonton:

“Lucy’s serious health problems and the signs of mental distress that she has long exhibited are reason enough to send her to a sanctuary in a warmer climate, but I hope that my proposal creates even more incentive.”

But the Valley Zoo has cited Lucy’s health problems as a reason not to move her, claiming that transporting the elephant would only exacerbate her respiratory issues.

Lucy’s situation has been an ongoing controversy, with animal rights activists lobbying for years to remove the ailing elephant from the zoo. Earlier this year, PETA and Canadian animal rights group Zoocheck filed a court case on behalf of Lucy, but the lawsuit was struck down.

Other celebrities, such as Bob Barker and William Shatner, have spoken out in the past on behalf of Lucy. But Georges Laraque’s proposal might hold more weight, as he is a resident of Edmonton and he played for the Oilers, the city’s hockey team, for years.

Hopefully Edmonton will pay attention to their hockey hometown hero and do what is best for Lucy.

Sign the petition (and the one HERE as well) to demand that Lucy be sent to an elephant sanctuary in a warmer climate.

Behaviour indicative of boredom, psychological stress

Vodpod videos no longer available.

WHERE TO SEND YOUR MESSAGES | I’ve had one returned but will keep it in: ron.hayter@edmonton.ca

Individual links:

Or Copy/Paste as a Group:

karen.leibovici@edmonton.ca ,
linda.sloan@edmonton.ca ,
ron.hayter@edmonton.ca ,
kim.krushell@edmonton.ca ,
ed.gibbons@edmonton.ca ,
tony.caterina@edmonton.ca ,
jane.batty@edmonton.ca ,
ben.henderson@edmonton.ca ,
bryan.anderson@edmonton.ca ,
don.iveson@edmonton.ca ,
amarjeet.sohi@edmonton.ca ,
stephen.mandel@edmonton.ca ,

 


SAMPLE MESSAGE ONE | From IDA

Honorable Mayor and Council Members,

I urge you to please take action to save the life of Lucy, the solitary elephant at the Valley Zoo, by sending her to a natural habitat sanctuary without delay.

Science tells us that elephants are highly social animals who should never be kept alone. For this reason, Canadian and international zoo guidelines specify that elephants be kept in social groups. No matter how good the intentions of Lucy’s keepers, they are no substitute for the companionship of other elephants.

Given the inhospitable weather that forces Lucy indoors for several months of the year, lack of space and the inadequate conditions for elephants at the Valley Zoo, it would be wrong to bring in other elephants. What Lucy needs right now is the relief and rehabilitation that can be found at an elephant sanctuary, where her physical and social needs will be better met. Elephant sanctuaries have helped many elephants like Lucy, who suffers from captivity-caused arthritis, foot disease and abnormal repetitive behaviors, by providing year-round access to vast natural habitats and the companionship of other elephants.

Please listen to the pleas of concerned and compassionate people from your own country and around the world. I urge you to order an independent assessment of Lucy’s health, then send her to a sanctuary where she can live a life much closer to what nature intended for her, and close the elephant exhibit at Valley Zoo.

Sincerely,

SAMPLE MESSAGE TWO

Honorable Mayor and Council Members,

I ask that you take immediate action to save the life of Lucy by relinquishing her an accredited sanctuary, namely PAWS Wildlife Sanctuary.  Lucy’s health is badly compromised due to her current surroundings; it is negligent and irresponsible to exploit the cause of her failing health, the Edmonton Valley Zoo environment, as reason to continue imprisoning her there regardless of meaningful intentions.

Please allow me to briefly illustrate personal observations: elephants are marvelously intelligent and loving creatures, forming enduring bonds and relationships; elephants also experience profound depression in sufferable conditions, separated from others and necessary companionship.  It is grossly unjust that our society finds animal abuse tolerable in cases such as Lucky’s.  While we as a collective understandably react shockingly at the cruelty inflicted on our companion animal friends, as a majority we embrace apathy regarding animals imprisoned for entertainment purposes.

Circuses, zoos, roadside attractions, and animal exhibits are all defined as a socially acceptable form of entertainment but that are all realistically a brutal indication of animal exploitation and imprisonment.  Animals are objectified, cruelly treated, forced to behave in unnatural manners, exposed to pain and inadequate care and environments, and made to parade in front on humans for the sole purpose of human greed.  There is no enchantment or magic for animals, and even zoos that perpetrate and foster an ideal of preservation are too often engaged in the savage acquisition of stolen animals, a brutal, bloody industry that hides under the chaotic surface of zoo entrepreneurship.

Financial greed at the cost of responsibility and compassion is inexcusable, and the implications about humans who enable animal abuse are disturbing: we cannot allow our children to inherit a cruel and indifferent society where animals are freely objectified. Indeed, if we do nothing, we are teaching our children troubling lessons and encouraging intolerance.

I know your time is limited, and I thank you for your attention and consideration.

NAME | COUNTRY

See More …

• Compassion
• What Can I Do?
• Animal Wrongs