Jenny the Elephant to Remain in Dallas

The Dallas Morning News

Aug. 20--Dallas Zoo officials recommended this morning that the zoo's troubled elephant, Jenny, remain in Dallas rather than be transferred to a facility in Mexico or to a facility in Tennessee.

In a memo to Parks and Recreation director Paul Dyer, Zoo director Greg Hudson said the decision to keep Jenny in Dallas "satisfies all of the criteria that we based our original decision on but does it with the least amount of disruption and stress to (the) animal we all love."

The decision comes as a surprise after weeks of wrangling over whether Jenny should go to a zoo in Puebla, Mexico, or to a sanctuary in Tennessee, as a group of protesters and council member Angela Hunt were demanding.

According to a press release provided to council members early today, the zoo reviewed several options for Jenny's new home.

But after reviewing the elephant's condition, zoo officials concluded that "it would be better for the 32-year-old Jenny to remain with familiar caretakers in an environment that has long been her home," the release stated.

The elephant will become a part of the zoo's planned Africa Savanna project, a $40 million expansion that is scheduled for completion in 2011.

"Jenny has been part of our family for over 22 years," Mr. Hudson said in a prepared statement. "We are very excited to have this opportunity to create a new home while we continue providing excellent care for Jenny at the Dallas Zoo."

Jenny has a history of behavioral problems related, zoologists say, to a rough upbringing. Before she was acquired by the Dallas Zoo, she'd been in a circus where she was beaten.

This May, she became the last elephant remaining at the zoo when a female companion, Keke, died of heart failure. Elephants are herding animals that long for the company of other elephants.

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