November 2004

Gillian Anderson Pleads With Chicago City Council to Help Peaches and Wankie

Following Tatima’s death, Chicago native and Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning X-Files star Gillian Anderson sent letters to 50 Chicago City Council members and Mayor Daley, urging them to help the surviving elephants by passing a resolution recommending that Peaches and Wankie be sent to a sanctuary. Anderson’s mailing includes a video with disturbing footage of Tatima just weeks before she died.

Anderson writes, “As you can see, Tatima lost so much weight at the Lincoln Park Zoo that she was skin and bones. It’s obvious from this tape why zoo officials rarely let her outdoors: They did not want the public to see their emaciated elephant limping around the exhibit.”

Anderson is appealing to the Chicago City Council to help send the zoo’s two remaining elephants to a sanctuary where they would have free access to hundreds of acres in a warm climate and other elephant friends to help them cope with the recent loss of their companion.

Anderson writes, “As it currently stands, Peaches and Wankie have nothing but cold, lonely days to look forward to. Now is the time to do the right thing by retiring them to a sanctuary and ending their suffering before it is too late for them as well.”

In December 2003, Anderson first appealed to Lincoln Park Zoo Director Kevin Bell to retire all three elephants to a sanctuary.
Anderson’s letter to Chicago Mayor Daley follows.

Anderson's complete letter
to the Lincoln Park Zoo

Click here to view this letter in Adobe Acrobat.

View video of Tatima limping from a leg injury in October 2003, then just weeks before her death, emaciated and still limping.

October 2004

Tatima Dies Suddenly

Tatima was discovered dead in her stall on Saturday, October 16. She reportedly died from tuberculosis (TB).

PETA is deeply saddened—but not surprised—by the loss of Tatima. As we feared, not only was moving the San Diego Wild Animal Park’s elephants to the Lincoln Park Zoo a cruel decision, it apparently proved deadly for Tatima. The stress of the move along with the zoo’s substandard elephant exhibit likely weakened Tatima’s immune system, causing her to become sick with TB, a disease that has become prevalent in captive elephants. In addition, long hours standing on hard indoor surfaces likely worsened the crippling leg injury that she sustained last year.

At age 35, Tatima died far short of her expected lifespan and might have lived well into her 70s with proper treatment at a state-of-the-art sanctuary if the zoo industry had not stubbornly denied her the chance. Her final days were cold, barren, and filled with pain and bitter loneliness.

As Tatima’s decline and premature death clearly illustrate, the Lincoln Park Zoo is not a suitable facility for elephants. Peaches and Wankie will likely suffer a similar fate unless the zoo allows them to retire to a sanctuary in a warm climate where they can roam freely on hundreds of acres of land.

PETA has asked the USDA to conduct a full and thorough investigation into the causes and conditions surrounding Tatima's premature death.

Read PETA's action alert for details on how you can help.

PETA held a protest at the zoo on October 20, 2004. Protesters carried signs that read, “One Elephant Death and Still Counting …,” “Lincoln Park Zoo: Have a Heart. Retire Peaches and Wankie to a Sanctuary!” and, “A Cold, Concrete Pen Is Not a Retirement Home.”

Click here for pictures of the protest.

August 2004

PETA has confirmed that a second elephant, Wankie, has also sustained a crippling leg injury at the Lincoln Park Zoo. Tatima, who suffered a crippling leg injury last year, has shown no improvement. Wankie is unable to bend her rear, right leg and limps when she attempts to walk. Out of concern that the elephants at the zoo are not receiving adequate exercise that is both required by the Animal Welfare Act and necessary to ensure their health and well-being, PETA has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture to launch an investigation.

In addition, there appear to be increasing compatibility problems between all three elephants, which may have precipitated the injuries to both elephants and may further compromise their already fragile conditions. The fact that Tatima is usually kept indoors, segregated from Peaches and Wankie, indicates social disharmony within the group. Observers have also noted that Tatima appears to be shunned by the other two elephants when they are all in the same enclosure, which places her in the solitary position as an outcast.

Read PETA’s action alert for details on how you can help.

To raise public awareness in the community, PETA staged a protest on July 9, 2004, which coincided with the zoo’s annual fundraiser. Led by an activist dressed in an elephant suit to represent the injured elephants, protesters carried signs that read, “Lincoln Park Zoo: Send Bored, Crippled Elephants to Sanctuary,” and, “Dying to Be Free.” Click here for a picture of the protest.

January 29, 2004

A former elephant keeper and a zoo employee are shocked by the declining condition of Peaches, Wankie, and Tatima at the Lincoln Park Zoo.

Ray Ryan, who worked with the elephants when they lived at the San Diego zoo prior to their banishment to Chicago in April 2003, says, “It is my firm belief that these elephants are dying in their new environment, and if not retired to a sanctuary soon, will not last more than a few years at Lincoln Park Zoo.

Compared to what they were used to in San Diego, these elephants are suffering from the shock of climate change, lack of space, depression, and boredom.” According to Colleen Goldsmith, a former San Diego zoo employee, “It is distressing to see these innocent animals placed in dismal conditions that could potentially be life-threatening due, in part, to their inability to be of breeding stock.”

For additional information, read PETA’s news release.

View video of the elephants hobbling around their tiny enclosure before the weather dipped below 30°F.

Click here to view Ray Ryan's letter in Adobe Acrobat.

Click here to view Colleen Goldsmith's letter in Adobe Acrobat.

December 16, 2003

PETA releases an action alert urging activists to ask Chicago’s mayor, Lincoln Park’s Zoo director, and the Chicago Park District to retire Peaches, Wankie, and Tatima to The Elephant Sanctuary.

December 8, 2003

X-Files Star Gillian Anderson Pleads for Lincoln Park Zoo Elephants

As PETA feared, three African elephants from the San Diego zoo, who were shipped amid controversy to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago in April, are in terrible shape. With Chicago's long, bitterly cold winters, the elephants, one of whom is 53 years old, will be kept in a small back room for half the year, making their chronic medical conditions even worse.

Chicago native Gillian Anderson has written a letter to the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo, pleading with him to send the three to a sanctuary in a warmer climate more appropriate for African elephants, who are accustomed to an equatorial climate.

The Emmy and Golden Globe award-winning X-Files star writes, "I kindly ask that you give serious thought to letting these three elephants retire to a warmer climate where they will have lots of room to roam, forage, play, swim in a pond, or do anything else that comes naturally to them."

Anderson's letter to the Lincoln Park Zoo director follows.

Click here to view this letter in Adobe Acrobat.

December 8, 2003

Kevin Bell, Director
Lincoln Park Zoo
2001 N. Clark St.
Chicago, IL 60614-4757

Dear Mr. Bell:
I was horrified to learn from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals(PETA) that three aging elephants from the San Diego Zoo, who had lived there since they were infants, were recently transferred to the Lincoln Park Zoo, where they are now getting their first taste of winter in one of the coldest regions of this country.

These elephants were accustomed to being outdoors year-round in San Diego's warm climate. Now, when the temperature dips below 40 or 50, they will be confined and isolated from one another in a small concrete back room. I understand that Peaches, one of the oldest African elephants in captivity, suffers from chronic lameness, colic, nail abscesses, and facial sores and recently broke off a tusk. Her long-time companions, Wanki and Tatima, reportedly suffer from recurring colic, and one has developed a serious limp since arriving at your zoo while the other shows signs of being angry and frustrated.

I kindly ask that you give serious thought to letting these three elephants retire to a warmer climate where they will have lots of room to roam, forage, play, swim in a pond, or do anything else that comes naturally to them. The Elephant Sanctuary, which operates on several thousand acres in the town of Hohenwald, Tennessee, has eagerly offered to take these elephants under its wing so that they can rest, recuperate, and live out the rest of their days in a more natural habitat with other African elephants. PETA would be happy to pay for transportation costs.

I hope you'll take the best interests of these elephants into thoughtful consideration and release them to a well-reputed sanctuary. I look forward to your reply. You can reach me through Debbie Leahy, PETA's director of captive animals and entertainment issues, at 630-393-9627.

Sincerely,
Gillian Anderson

April 10, 2003

Click here to read PETA's letter warning Lincoln Park Zoo officials that the San Diego elephants would be miserable in Chicago.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

Click here to learn how you can help send Wankie to a sanctuary.

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