Mourners of Elephant Who Died at Oklahoma City Zoo to Hold Vigil
Protesters and PETA Renew Call to Send Surviving Elephants to Accredited Sanctuary for Retirement
For Immediate Release:
February 2, 2016
Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382
People dressed in black will hold a vigil outside the Oklahoma City Zoo on Wednesday for Chai, an elephant who died prematurely over the weekend after a lifetime of deprivation in captivity. The group is calling on the zoo to close its elephant exhibit in the wake of the two recent elephant deaths there: In October, a calf died of a highly fatal disease associated with captive elephants.
Where: Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, 2101 N.E. 50th St., Oklahoma City
When: Wednesday, February 3, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
“This animal’s life was marked by trauma, from the day she was taken from her beloved mother as an infant in Thailand to the moment she died in a crowded zoo,” says PETA Foundation Captive Law Enforcement Counsel Rachel Mathews. “The zoo should send the surviving elephants to a real sanctuary where they’ll have acres to roam, loving care, and every other essential that this zoo can never give them.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to use for entertainment”—notes that Chai was used for years for breeding at the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, where she endured at least 112 rounds of artificial insemination and lost her only calf to a deadly disease. She was sent to be bred at the Dickerson Park Zoo in Missouri, where she was reportedly physically abused with a bullhook—a weapon that resembles a fireplace poker with a sharp hook on one end. And although PETA urged Seattle’s zoo to send Chai and her companion, Bamboo, to a sanctuary last year, they were instead sent to the Oklahoma City facility, which has a history of premature animal deaths.
For more information, please visit PETA.org.
