The Cincinnati Enquirer ran an article about the controversy surrounding keeping elephants in zoos. Please write a letter to the editor of the Enquirer about the suffering elephants endure in zoos. Send letters to the Enquirer via an online feedback form at http://www.enquirer.com/editor/letters.html.

You can use the following points to help you in your letter or visit www.HelpElephants.com for more information.

* Elephants are highly complex, social animals who live in extended family groups and travel over thirty miles a day. Today’s zoos are unable to meet the physical and social needs of elephants. These needs include space, adequate exercise, and extended social groups. 

* Elephants in zoos suffer from captivity-induced physical and psychological health problems due to lack of space. Health problems include debilitating foot and joint problems, arthritis, digestive disorders, stereotypic behaviors (neurotic behaviors resulting from severe confinement). Other problems include reproductive system shutdown, and high infant mortality rate.

* The AZA, a zoo industry trade organization, provides a set of standards that are insufficient for the proper maintenance of elephants. These standards include a minimum outdoor enclosure size of 1,800 square feet for one elephant, the equivalent of six parking lot spaces. The standards also allow the prolonged chaining of elephants. 

* As the largest land mammal, elephants are genetically designed to move and forage most of the day; this constant movement is necessary for their psychological and physical well-being. 

* Historically elephants have been managed through coercive force, such as chaining for prolonged periods and use of bullhooks and electrical hotshots; this abuse is unacceptable. 

* Zoos routinely move elephants, and other animals, from one zoo to another with little to no consideration for their social bonds. In the wild female elephants never leave their mothers and male elephants have complex social structures with other bulls and females. No elephant in the wild lives in constant solitary confinement.  

Letters should be less than 200 words. Please do not send attachments and please remember to include your full name, address, and phone number (for verification purposes--street names and phone numbers will not be published) as well as the title of the story and the date it ran and not to use any wording in this alert.

Thanks and good luck!

Sincerely,
Kristie Phelps
Program Coordinator

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