July 4, 2007

The Honorable Anthony Intintoli

Mayor of Vallejo

555 Santa Clara Street

Vallejo, California  94590

Re:  Sale of elephants to Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc.

Dear Mayor Intintoli:

I am writing to request that you reconsider the proposed sale of four elephants currently owned by the city of Vallejo to Six Flags Theme Parks, Inc.  The elephants, who now reside at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, a city-owned amusement park under Six Flags, Inc. management, all deserve better treatment than that which they presently receive or will be likely to receive in future.  "Taj," now in her late 60s and the most elderly of the four elephants under discussion, has worked in circuses and amusement parks her entire life.  Even were she in perfect health (she suffers from arthritis) she would by now, given her many decades of service, be deserving of retirement to a sanctuary.  Instead she is required to continue performing; should you allow her sale to Six Flags to go through, she will likely be forced to continue performing until she dies.  "Liz," a   43-year-old Asian elephant, has suffered many years from abscesses, bone fractures, and the disintegration of a bone in her left foot.  Despite the pain this causes, and despite the possibility of deeper infections becoming a persistent feature of her life, Liz continues to be required to give rides and perform in shows.  The 28-year-old African elephant called "Tava" suffers from a cracked tusk; additionally, she has repeatedly though unsuccessfully subjected to numerous artificial insemination procedures (these taking as long as two hours to complete).  The 19-year-old "Malaika" is believed to have been abused by a former trainer; she is now a target of aggression for the park's other elephants and is said to be bullied by them on a regular basis.  She also suffers from allergies and repeated bouts of colic.  Clearly, sending Malaika to an elephant sanctuary qualified to deal with physical and behavioral problems is her best hope for recovery from past and present offenses.  The same might be said of all the elephants currently held at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom:  They all deserve sanctuary.

Nine elephants have died at Six Flags since 1995.  All but one died prematurely.  All elephants housed at Six Flags are, of course, forced to perform tricks and other unnatural acts for the sake of human "entertainment"; they are trained via the frequently cruel and now outmoded circus-style management system, by which elephants are controlled through domination and physical punishment.  In addition, the housing for elephants at Six Flags is woefully inadequate.  Asian and African elephants are housed together, though this is not recommended procedure.  The yard provided for stimulation and relaxation is small and devoid of vegetation.  A couple of hanging tires and a cement pool for bathing are not enough to create an environment suitable to the complex physical and psychological needs of elephants.

Vallejo City Manager Joseph Tanner recently stated that moving the elephants to a sanctuary is something the city may not have the ability to do, as ownership of the elephants is "tied up in the contracts" which exist between the city and Six Flags.  I would request, should you determine that it is legally impossible to prevent the sale of the four city-owned elephants to Six Flags, Inc., that you say so publicly, and that you provide access to the appropriate legal documents involved.  There will be no reason to take your statements on this issue seriously otherwise.

It is my hope, of course, that you will discover the legal means to allow you to transfer these elephants to a sanctuary, where they will no longer be forced to perform tricks in order to turn a profit.  Should you be unwilling to do so, you will in my opinion be endorsing two separate though related forms of exploitation:  that of the elephants, whose vulnerability is being exploited for the sake of arrogance and greed, and that of the humans who go to see them, whose wonder at the natural world is likewise being exploited, and thereby transformed into mere gullibility.  Please help prevent this by refusing to sell the four elephants now owned by the city of Vallejo to Six Flags, Inc., and by releasing the elephants instead to appropriate sanctuaries.  It's no less than what we all deserve.

Yours sincerely & etc. . . .