#LucyCrew - Email 3 to Dewar

Our Response to director of Edmonton Valley Zoo, Gary dewar's 2nd Reply

Dear Gary,

I appreciate your replying to my August 6 follow-up email, but once again I’m disappointed at the misinformation contained in your message.

I’m sure you are well aware that Dr. Cracknell’s name was put forward by Zoocheck to be one member of a panel of multi-disciplinary experts to evaluate Lucy, similar to the one you claim to be assembling for her next assessment this fall. It was CAZA who arranged for Cracknell to perform the assessment a year later, without Zoocheck’s support or knowledge. Your staff passed on this incorrect version of events to Rick Quinn, who did not take the time to confirm what actually happened with Zoocheck, proving again he did not conduct a thorough review of Lucy’s situation before forming his opinion.

Also in regard to Jane Goodall Institute of Canada’s reversal, there are many independent qualified elephant experts that they could have consulted about the risks of relocating an elephant with health issues to a sanctuary. In June, Jane Goodall announced her collaboration on a project in Thailand with Lek Chailert, the founder of the Save Elephant Foundation. Lek regularly transports elephants much older and sicker than Lucy to her sanctuaries without access to the state of the art equipment Lucy would enjoy. The fact that JGI Canada relied solely on the outdated reports of Edmonton Valley Zoo’s paid consultants, without outside input from experts like Lek or Zoocheck, makes their findings suspect, and certainly not independent.

These excerpts from the zoo’s own medical records contradict your statement that Lucy’s colic only causes her to “lay down and rest”. They describe Lucy experiencing abdominal pain for lengthy periods, flicking her trunk and kicking at her abdomen, being unable to sleep or eat at times, and at one point she even appeared to stop breathing. By downplaying and ignoring the severity of her health issues, the zoo has allowed them to become worse every year. You refuse to accept free world class expert veterinary advice, relying instead on outdated treatment methods and medication to mask Lucy’s symptoms instead of treating her conditions.

While it’s reassuring that you’ve implemented an emergency response procedure with the Fire Rescue Services, you’re only ensuring the zoo is prepared to respond to any incident that may occur while Lucy is being monitored by her keepers. .Reviewing CCTV footage every morning won’t save Lucy if she should go down overnight when she’s alone. At the Oklahoma City Zoo, Chai went down sometime in the night, and her keepers found her dead at 7:30 in the morning. Both The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and PAWS monitor their elephants and have staff on site 24/7 so they can respond immediately to any emergency.

Edmonton Valley Zoo has never and will never be a suitable environment for an Asian elephant. At the very least you should have installed a hydrotherapy pool for her years ago when she developed arthritis and foot issues. If you truly want to treat Lucy with dignity and respect, drop the pretense that she’ll die if moved. Let a panel of truly independent elephant experts assess her. Let them decide if she’s able to move to the sanctuary and spend her remaining years living as close to a life in the wild as possible. That is the birthright that Edmonton Valley Zoo denied her when you ordered her from a wildlife dealer, but you can still give it back to her before it’s too late.

Sincerely,