In its latest news about its Elephantastic event this Saturday, April 12, the Oregon Zoo casually mentions that Packy, whose 52nd birthday is being celebrated that day, won’t be present at his own birthday party. The zoo states that Packy will be kept away from the public and will get his cake instead on Monday. Then a short time later, the zoo inserted this line into a new announcment about the event: Due to construction scheduling, Packy is in the east sand yard near what will soon be Forest Hall and is only visible from hardhat areas. We are not certain at this point who, if anyone, will be able to see Packy.
Oregon Zoo officials are diverting the publics’ attention away from Packy’s TB and his bad reaction to the TB drugs to a new elephant exhibit which will not result in any significant improvement for the elephants. The zoo has already sunk $57 million into this 6.25 acre onsite exhibit and is even asking for more donations from the public to complete it. The zoo is not fulfilling the goal of creating an offsite multi acre preserve which would have at least provided much more space for the herd.
We continue to urge Metro, who oversees the zoo, to overrule the zoo director’s resistance to releasing Packy to a sanctuary. We ask that you help us in that effort by contacting your Metro councilor and Metro President, Tom Hughes to insist that they release Packy. See contact information on our Take Action link. And read the zoo’s PR spin here: Note: the zoo has now denied access to this page. In the event that access is allowed at some point, we are keeping the link below.
http://www.oregonzoo.org/events/elephantastic