Jenny’s New Home

Jenny, a 32-year-old African elephant who has spent 22 years on exhibit at the Dallas Zoo, now faces an even sadder fate in Mexico unless the Dallas City Council intervenes at the eleventh hour.

Texas Humane Legislation Network, a leading animal advocacy organization that lobbies for effective animal protection laws at the Texas Legislature, is urging Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert and the City Council to send Jenny to The Elephant Sanctuary, a USDA-approved elephant sanctuary in Tennessee, where she will live in a natural habitat with other female African elephants.

“It is our hope that the Mayor and City Council will recognize the situation Jenny will face in Mexico and choose the far better option of a sanctuary,” said THLN president and Dallas area resident Cile Holloway.

THLN joins with the Dallas-based grassroots organization Concerned Citizens for Jenny in opposing her relocation to the Mexican Safari Display Park for the following reasons:

• Jenny will not be protected by anti-cruelty laws nor will any public records be made available to track her welfare.
• In Mexico, Jenny will be isolated from the other female elephants, as she will be the only African elephant in a community of Asian elephants. African and Asian elephants cannot share space due to behavioral differences and health risks. Female elephants in the wild live in close-knit matriarchal groups. Isolation is unnatural and inhumane.
• The Safari Display Park will give Jenny less than two percent of the space she would enjoy at The Elephant Sanctuary (elephants.com), whose operators have said they would welcome Jenny into their 2,700 acre state-of-the-art refuge to live in the company of other African elephants.
• The Dallas Zoo cites the Mexican Safari Display Park’s accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums as sufficient qualification for being entrusted with Jenny’s well-being. However, AZA is a trade association that calls for only minimal and voluntary standards of humane treatment.

To Contact the Mayor of Dallas

Mayor Tom Leppert
Dallas City Hall
1500 Marilla Street, Room 5EN
Dallas, TX 75201-6390

Main Phone: (214) 670-4054
Fax: (214) 670-0646
tom.leppert@dallascityhall.com