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| Spotlight on Kallie
Sad Life - What's Next for this Long-Suffering Elephant?
Kallie was just a year old when she was taken from her home in Zimbabwe in 1983, where she watched her entire family get shot and killed in a mass culling. Along with dozens of other orphaned baby elephants, she was shipped to the United States where she became the property of an eccentric millionaire, Arthur Johnson, founder of the Nautilus exercise equipment company.
Arthur Johnson had a 600-acre property named "Jumbo Lair" where he kept 85 elephants, 600  crocodiles, 500 snakes, three rhinos and one gorilla. At Jumbo Lair, the baby elephant later known as Kallie was named "June." In 1984, Bette joined her at Jumbo Lair. It is reported that 10 elephants died at Jumbo Lair between 1984 and 1987 from transport stress, wounds and diseases. 37 elephants were sold to zoos and circuses during that time period. Bette was sold to the Meeks company in 1986, but June/Kallie would stay at Jumbo Lair until 1989, when Arthur Johnson and his wife divorced and sold off all the animals. June/Kallie and two other elephants, Willie and Dancer, were sold to "Four Bear," a private company in Detroit.
At the Four Bear company, June/Kallie, Dancer and Willie were allegedly terribly abused. It was reported that Dancer had been chained in the barn for over a year and was covered with wounds and scars from repeated pitchfork stabbings. All three elephants were badly malnourished and were even the subject of a later Reader's Digest article on animal abuse.
 Just a year later, all three elephants were sold again to another company, "Zoomotion," where June's name was changed to Kallie. Zoomotion was owned by New Hampshire businessman Al Jones, who leased the elephants to animal trainer Bret Bronson. Bronson traveled around the country with Kallie, Willie, Dancer and a fourth African elephant named Tonya, exhibiting them at country fairs and private businesses and renting them out for commercials and movies including "12 Monkeys." During one performance at a high school circus, Tonya knocked down her trainer during an act, opened a door with her trunk, and fled the building. She was caught a quarter mile away from the circus.
In 1999, Al Jones decided to sell Dancer, Willie and Kallie and moved Tonya to Benson's Animal Park in New Hampshire. Bronson tried to raise $50,000, the asking price for the three elephants, but failed to do so. Dancer was retired to the Black Beauty Ranch in Tyler, Texas and Willie was sold to Disney's Animal Kingdom. Kallie was sold to T&T Entertainment, where she rejoined Bette, and both were put to work giving rides at the Philadelphia Zoo during the summer months.
In April 2004, the Philadelphia Zoo purchased both Kallie and Bette, and crammed them into the quarter-acre exhibit and 1,800 sq. ft. barn which already housed two elephants, the then 47-year-old Petal and 40-year-old Dulary.
According to Philadelphia Zoo sources, Kallie is the largest animal in the zoo's "collection" and eats approximately 160 pounds of hay a day costing $21.28 per day. The Philly Zoo spends another $3.72 a day on elephant pellets and a little produce for a total cost of $25.00 per day. (Click here for source). Please visit this link to see what the elephants eat at a sanctuary.
Kallie is easily recognizable by her floppy right ear. She is often mistaken for the oldest elephant, even when Petal was alive, because of her aged appearance. She appears to be an elephant who has endured many things.
In October of 2005, the Philadelphia Zoo announced it was closing the elephant exhibit and would be finding new homes for the elephants. At first, all three African elephants were supposed to be sent to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore, which had planned a major explansion. Those plans fell through and in the spring of 2007, the Philadelphia Zoo was looking for another place to send Kallie, Bette and Petal (Dulary moved to The Elephant Sanctuary in May 2007, where she is thriving.)
 The wonderful Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Galt, California, (photo, left) offered to provide a lifetime home to all three elephants at no charge. Mara, another African elephant who had been orphaned in Zimbabwe around the same time as Kallie, and had lived at the Jumbo Lair with Kallie back in the 1980's, moved to PAWS back in 1989 when Arthur Johnson sold his elephants after his divorce. Ten other former zoo and circus elephants also live at PAWS, enjoying free access to hundreds of acres of lush rolling hills, lakes, and natural foliage.
Sadly, instead of allowing the elephants to move to PAWS, the Philadelphia Zoo decided to send them to a proposed breeding facility outside of Pittsburgh which hadn't even been built yet. Although she had the chance to move to PAWS and spend the rest of her years enjoying free access to hundreds of lush acres, Petal died in June 2008 in the same cement barn where she had lived for over 50 years.
At the time of this newsletter, the breeding facility is in the final stages of Phase I construction, which includes a 10,000 sq. ft. cement barn. Because none of the perimeter fencing at the breeding facility is elephant-safe, all elephants confined at the breeding facility will spend most of their time inside the cement barn.
Pittsburgh Zoo director Barbara Baker has stated that both Kallie and Bette will be forcibly bred; first with Jackson, a bull elephant, and if that breeding is unsuccessful, they will be artificially inseminated.
It is most likely neither Kallie nor Bette will successfully breed with Jackson, so they will be subjected to the highly invasive procedure some call "rape with a needle" of artificial insemination. See photos of the procedure (notice the chains and bullhooks), below.
It doesn't have to be this way. Please visit our website at www.ElesAngels.com to get the latest updates on our campaign to help Kallie and Bette and learn more about how *you* can help. Thank you.
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- LETTERS -
In the last few months, local papers printed more letters from those speaking out on behalf of the Philly Zoo elephants:
An Elephant's Lifespan
Philadelphia Daily News, June 30, 2008
Although it's true Petal was the oldest African elephant in a U.S. zoo, an average elephant life-span is 70 years, not the 45 claimed by a zoo official. Elephant life expectancy in captivity and the wild is about 45 years. But if wild elephants are protected from poaching, they can live well into their 60s, even 70s. Females commonly give birth in their 50s. The fact that an African elephant lived past age 50 in a U.S. zoo is an anomaly, even though zoo elephants are not subject to the starvation, predation and poaching that wild elephants are, should be cause for alarm, not a source of pride. Marianne Bessey, Philadelphia
Not such an elephant paradise
Philadelphia Daily News, August 11, 2008
I was saddened to read Stu Bykofsky's conclusion that Kallie and Bette would be "happier elephants" at the Pittsburgh breeding facility. I, too, visited the facility but concluded the opposite. Not only will these intelligent creatures continue to be subjected to the fear-based management method using bullhooks phased out long ago by the majority of U.S. zoos, but they never will have free access to any of the 724 acres Stu refers to as "pachyderm paradise." Instead, they'll be walked occasionally around the grounds at the whim of keepers, and subjected to life-threatening breeding attempts. What's saddest of all is that Petal (now dead), Kallie and Bette, all wild-caught elephants, had the chance to move to a true paradise almost two years ago when the Performing Animal Welfare Society offered them a home forever at no charge to the zoo. At PAWS, the elephants are allowed to just be elephants - exploring, socializing, swimming, playing on hundreds of acres that are just as beautiful as the grounds at the breeding facility. The difference is that at PAWS the elephants can actually enjoy it. Marianne Bessey, Philadelphia
Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants was also recently included in these local media stories:
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Please show up for Kallie and Bette and *all elephants* on Sunday, September 21, 2008 as part of "Elephant Appreciation Day."
Elephant Appreciation Day is actually Monday, September 22, 2008 - but our rally is the day before. Please join us outside the Philadelphia Zoo at 11:00 am for a rally and short walk to help raise awareness of the plight of all elephants - captive, wild, young, old, male and female.
We also do outreach at the Philadelphia Zoo EVERY WEEKEND and could really use your help.
Call us at 610-733-1248 to get the current weekend schedule.
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| Just for FUN! |
Stump Love! Elephants are obsessed
with a stump - watch it here! (Be sure
to listen to the voice-over, it's hilarious!)
Photo credit: Wildcast.net |
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| Visit to the Pittsburgh Breeding Facility
Local media was invited to visit the proposed breeding facility outside of Pittsburgh on Monday, August 4 . We visited the facility last year - looks beautiful in the photo below, doesn't it?
Unfortunately, the elephants and other proposed inhabitants are not going to be able to enjoy any of the 724 acres. None of the perimeter fencing is elephant safe (cost is a likely factor, since one acre of fencing can cost up to $1,000,000.)
This pen is reportedly the only area that has elephant-safe fencing - look how small it is!
Instead of allowing the elephants access to any of the land, the keepers will allegedly walk them when they feel like it - always with the sharp tip of a bullhook at the ready.
In fact, the barn shown below is where the elephants will spend a MINIMUM of 50 percent of their time (probably much more, and in the winter months, close to 100 percent some days).
Jackson, the bull elephant who will be shipped in to breed with the female elephants, won't even get the periodic walks - he'll either be confined in a cement stall or small pen at all times.
Don't Kallie and Bette deserve better than this?
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ACTION
ALERT
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KALLIE AND BETTE NEED YOUR HELP!
The local and national media is for the most part ignoring the controversy behind the breeding facliity. Please take a moment and write or call one or more of the media contacts below to request that they provide another perspective than the zoo's rhetoric.
NBC10 - story here - contact them at 610-558-5510, press 5, then 2, or call 610-668-5701, or email here
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - story here - email them here
Daily American - story here - email them here (scroll down)
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Thank you for caring,
Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants
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