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Copy paste as TO:
Amarjeet.sohi@edmonton.ca; erin.rutherford@edmonton.ca; aaron.paquette@edmonton.ca; jennifer.rice@edmonton.ca; keren.tang@edmonton.ca; ashley.salvador@edmonton.ca; andrew.knack@edmonton.ca; anne.stevenson@edmonton.ca; michael.janz@edmonton.ca; tim.cartmell@edmonton.ca; sarah.hamilton@edmonton.ca; jo-anne.wright@edmonton.ca; karen.principe@edmonton.ca
Copy paste as CC:
gary.dewar@edmonton.ca, info@freethewild.org, zoocheck@zoocheck.com,
justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca, premier@gov.ab.ca,
aep.minister@gov.ab.ca, LTGov@gov.ab.ca, AFRED.Minister@gov.ab.ca
BCC:
panelofvets4lucy@gmail.com, tj2vegas@hotmail.com
Copy paste SUBJECT of the email:
Lucy’s 2021 Health Assessment and Financial Considerations
Copy paste into body of the email:
Dear Mayor Sohi and Members of Council,
Congratulations on winning the municipal election and becoming the new mayor and city council of Edmonton. I wish you the best in implementing your aspirations and goals and becoming recognized as a thoughtful and forward-thinking city on the world stage.
Ensuring fiscal responsibility and transparency at City Hall while upholding taxpayers’ values was a cornerstone of your platform. One way of achieving substantial savings that aligns with the wishes of 67% of the population would be to allow an independent panel of elephant experts to assess Lucy the Asian elephant, and releasing her to a sanctuary if they determine she is fit to be moved. Lucy’s care and maintenance costs the city about $250,000 per year. Zoo director Gary Dewar admits that the zoo never makes money and is subsidized by the city at a cost of $4.9 million per year - https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/covid-19-impact-on-edmonton-zoo. Releasing Lucy to spend her remaining years in an accredited sanctuary will save the city money and eliminate the additional costs to upgrade her habitat to meet her geriatric needs.
At 46 years old, Lucy has well-documented captivity-induced health issues that will only be exacerbated with every winter that she spends confined indoors. Edmonton Valley Zoo acknowledges that their elephant habitat is inadequate and they are phasing elephants out of their collection after Lucy. They have already started her gradual retirement from public display. There is no fiscally sound reason to keep an ailing elephant in substandard conditions when other options are available at no cost if she can be moved. The zoo has claimed for years that an undiagnosed breathing condition precludes moving her, however the fact is that in 44 years at the zoo, Lucy has only ever been evaluated by ONE specialist recognized as an elephant species expert. That specialist, James Oosterhuis, is a zoo industry representative and has a bias against sanctuaries. Lucy’s future should be determined by a panel of unbiased experts who want what’s best for her, not what the zoo industry wants.
These offers have been made and are still available to the city for Lucy’s care:
• FREE health assessment by a panel of independent world-class elephant experts provided by Free the Wild and/or Zoocheck Canada
• FREE transportation to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee
• FREE individualized care for Lucy at the sanctuary, the companionship of a herd, and the opportunity to live out her life in a safe haven dedicated to her well-being.
This decision will have a long-lasting effect on the rest of Lucy’s life and shouldn’t be made lightly. I urge you to study the similar cases of Maggie the elephant from the Alaska Zoo and of Thika, Toka and Iringa of the Toronto Zoo. The same excuses were made by the zoos in those cases, but common sense, compassion and scientific evidence prevailed in the end. Will your actions finally allow Lucy to have the happy ending to her story that she deserves?
Background information:
Synopsis of Lucy's health at http://www.savelucy.ca/lucy-s-health
Excerpts from Lucy's medical records 2016-2019 - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aTTCxHqgX-il5jsJRlitRFazAYcUkBhk/view
Highlights of Lucy's medical records up until 2009, which were obtained via Freedom of Information legislation. Text has been extracted directly from the Valley Zoo’s medical and keeper records. Virtually no medical records are available for the 1977 - 1980 time period - http://www.savelucy.ca/lucy-s-health/medical-records
https://sites.google.com/view/freelucy chronicles Lucy's life and a summary of efforts made on her behalf.