PM told "don’t gift elephant to Manila Zoo"
Manila: A Manila-based animal rights group called on Sri Lankan Prime Minister D.M. Jayaratne not to send a baby elephant to Manila Zoo, which the group described as a "decrepit and sub-standard facility" that had reduced another elephant named Mali to a terrible state.
"I beg you to cancel plans to condemn another elephant to a life of confinement, loneliness, and deprivation at a substandard facility like the Manila Zoo.... We beg you to take immediate action to prevent the transfer of any animals from your country," said Jason Baker, vice-president of International Operations of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), in a letter to Jayaratne, a copy of which was given to Gulf News.
Sri Lanka’s plan to send a baby elephant to mark the 50 years of diplomatic ties between Manila and Colombo "will result in the elephant being sentenced to a lifetime of misery at the Manila Zoo", said Baker, adding this "decision will surely reflect poorly on Sri Lanka".
"If you care about elephants, you would never send one to the Manila Zoo to suffer for the rest of their life," said Baker who recounted in detail the suffering of Mali, as one example of mistreatment of elephants at the city’s zoo.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=34863
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Animal rights group appeals: Don’t send jumbo to Manila Zoo
COLOMBO, September 16, 2011 (AFP) - An international animal rights group warned Sri Lanka Friday against giving the Philippines a baby elephant, saying the creature would face a ‘lifetime of confinement, boredom and abuse’.
The Asian unit of US-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wrote to Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne saying the donation would sentence the elephant to a life of ‘misery at the Manila Zoo’.
The plea comes a day after Sri Lanka announced it was marking 50 years of diplomatic relations with the Philippines by giving the Manila Zoo an animal from its state-run elephant orphanage.
Sri Lanka’s acting information minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene told reporters that the cabinet approved the gift after it was proposed by the prime minister.
Referring to the Manila Zoo as a ‘decrepit facility that has recently come under public scrutiny’, PETA’s Manila office said Jayaratne’s move reflected poorly on Sri Lanka.
“If you care about elephants, you would never send one to the Manila Zoo to suffer for the rest of their life,” PETA said, adding that the zoo’s sole elephant, Mali, spends her days alone in a barren cement enclosure.
“I beg you to cancel plans to condemn another elephant to a life of confinement, loneliness, and deprivation at a substandard facility like the Manila Zoo,” PETA’s vice-president Jason Baker said.
There was no immediate comment from Jayaratne’s office.
In September the first elephant survey since the end of Sri Lanka’s decades-long war put the country’s total elephant population at 7,379, of which some 5,879 wild elephants live near wildlife parks and sanctuaries.
http://www.nation.lk/2011/09/18/news11.htm
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Animal rights group appeals: Don’t send jumbo to Manila Zoo
COLOMBO, September 16, 2011 (AFP) - An international animal rights group warned Sri Lanka Friday against giving the Philippines a baby elephant, saying the creature would face a ‘lifetime of confinement, boredom and abuse’.
The Asian unit of US-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) wrote to Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister D. M. Jayaratne saying the donation would sentence the elephant to a life of ‘misery at the Manila Zoo’.
The plea comes a day after Sri Lanka announced it was marking 50 years of diplomatic relations with the Philippines by giving the Manila Zoo an animal from its state-run elephant orphanage.
Sri Lanka’s acting information minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardene told reporters that the cabinet approved the gift after it was proposed by the prime minister.
Referring to the Manila Zoo as a ‘decrepit facility that has recently come under public scrutiny’, PETA’s Manila office said Jayaratne’s move reflected poorly on Sri Lanka.
“If you care about elephants, you would never send one to the Manila Zoo to suffer for the rest of their life,” PETA said, adding that the zoo’s sole elephant, Mali, spends her days alone in a barren cement enclosure.
“I beg you to cancel plans to condemn another elephant to a life of confinement, loneliness, and deprivation at a substandard facility like the Manila Zoo,” PETA’s vice-president Jason Baker said.
There was no immediate comment from Jayaratne’s office.
In September the first elephant survey since the end of Sri Lanka’s decades-long war put the country’s total elephant population at 7,379, of which some 5,879 wild elephants live near wildlife parks and sanctuaries.
http://www.nation.lk/2011/09/18/news11.htm
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