Christie Lagally

Annie at the Chimp Sanctuary NW

I was behind opening my email this week and one email was from Diana Goodrich of the Chimpanzee Sanctuary NW.  Her news was a Christmas gift to me.

Perhaps you’ve already heard the news, but in the last few days the NIH announced that all 110 chimpanzees used for research at the New Iberia Research Center will be moved to the Chimp Haven, a national chimpanzee sanctuary.

After decades of abuse and experimentation in a laboratory, the NIH made plans in September to move just 10 of the 110 to Sanctuary, while the rest would be sent to other laboratories.  But obviously this is not acceptable, and various groups like CSNW, PETA and the HSUS among others petitioned NIH to make the right decision for all the chimps.

Here is the announcement from Diana Goodrich.  Merry Christmas to all creatures!

Dec. 19, 2012:

The NIH announced that they will be retiring all 110 chimpanzees to Chimp Haven in Louisiana, and will not be sending them to the biomedical laboratory in Texas.

Thank you for making this victory possible by supporting this petition and by supporting chimpanzee sanctuaries like Chimp Haven and Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.

Diana Goodrich
Director of Outreach
Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest
ChimpsNW.org

Significant fundraising will be needed to house the additional chimps, so please consider making a year-end donation to Chimp Haven.

Elephants as they should be…

In the last month, Michael Berens, reporter for the Seattle Times and the Seattle Times editorial board have taken bold steps to tell the truth about elephants in a city zoos and in captivity in general.

But now action is being taken by the Seattle City Council to consider the alternatives for the Elephants in Woodland Park Zoo.  See Beren’s follow-up article here.

Note, that according to this article, the City of Seattle covers 1/3 of the zoo’s $30 million budget annually.  Yet I don’t want my money spent to hold elephants in zoos. In a city that is always looking for more ways to cut costs or raise taxes, the logical solution is to give the elephants peace in a sanctuary, and save the city perhaps millions of dollars per year.

I was very disturbed when I read Beren’s article on the conditions for elephants in Woodland Park Zoo and the behavior of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.   The Seattle Times generously printed my letter to the editor and to our local leaders about my mistrust of leaders who don’t act on basic animal welfare questions, especially when they save the city  money.

Elephants as they should be…

And of course they should!  Co-founders of the Friends of the Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, Alyne Fortgang and Nancy Pennington, have committed many long years to helping the elephants out of the cruel life they live at the Woodland Park Zoo (see ref: Seattle Times Glamour Beasts).

But a Seattle Times columnist, Danny Westneat, reported on one more aspect of this story — the animal activists were right!  Elephants at Woodland Park Zoo, and zoos nationwide, should be retired to Sanctuaries where they can live in relative freedom, out of the rains of Seattle and the pressure of the zoo industry that has exploited them.  While it’s not hard to believe that Fortgang and Pennington and their fellow advocates where right about the elephants, it is interesting to note the change in perspective about animal rights and welfare advocates. We are coming to realize that in most cases advocates are, indeed, right about the evidence of harm to animals that they are trying to communicate to the world.

Please write to Seattle City Council, King County Council and the Seattle Times Today to voice your opposition to elephant captivity in zoos and circuses.  Here’s how from the Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants.

Furthermore, Alyne Fortgang will appear on Living Humanethis Sunday at 2:00 pm on KKNW Alternative Talk 1150 AM Seattle.

Elephants as they should be…

The Seattle Times is publishing a two-part piece on Woodland Park Zoo elephants (Dec. 2nd and 3rd) and the  “dark side of elephant captivity in zoos.”   See the announcement from the Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants below:

To all our Loyal Supporters,

Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter is doing a story titled: Glamour Beasts about the dark side of elephant captivity in zoos.  It will be the cover story of this Sunday’s Seattle Times!!!  Part two will be on Monday.  Here’s the teaser:   

http://video.seattletimes.com/1998917892001/

 Riding on the momentum of this story, we will be asking you to help the elephants.  More to come!