People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is hoping its latest ad campaign will give Lucy the elephant a ride out of the Valley Zoo and into a warm-weather sanctuary.
Capital taxis have been fitted with taxi-top ads reading, Don’t forget Lucy. Sanctuary, not zoo.
The ads will be rolling around Edmonton for the next three weeks.
“PETA is out here to remind Edmonton citizens that while they’re enjoying the summer, Lucy is still sitting in her small enclosure, basically in solitary confinement,” said Virginia Fort, a PETA campaigner.
“We’re asking the Edmonton zoo to let her go to a sanctuary where she would be much happier and healthier.”
Dean Treichel, the zoo’s operations supervisor, said Lucy has health issues, including respiratory problems, and it wouldn’t be medically safe to move her.
“We’ve been advised by independent veterinarians that it would most likely kill her to ship her,” Treichel said.
“It’s not a question of whether or not people like that she’s here, it’s about what’s in her best interest.”
On Friday an Edmonton judge threw out a legal application by animal rights activists wanting Lucy moved, saying it was an abuse of the legal process.
