Letter to Zoo Task Force: Reach out to elephant experts
A simple and sensible suggestion from concerned citizen, Elizabeth Mitchell:
Mr. Jay Manning, Task Force Members, and Anne Fennessy:
I see in “Public Comments” that contact information on many acknowledged experts with excellent credentials have been provided by WPZ elephant advocates, Alyne Fortgang and Lisa Kane.
Task Force members are able to “reach out to ad hoc expertise,” to complement the Expert Review Panel, as Mr. Slinker indicated in the April meeting.
At that meeting, Suzanne Walsh commented that the lack of an acknowledged elephant behavior expert on the Expert Review Panel “made her nervous.”
It should make the whole Task Force nervous.
Please arrange to hear from some of the well-credentialed experts suggested by the elephant advocates. If the Task Force doesn’t do this, the whole process will be flawed and any findings of scant credibility to the public.
I am learning along with the Task Force, but I have learned enough to be certain there is ample expert disagreement with Mr. Seidl’s preliminary report asserting that Chai’s constant weaving and swaying is “anticipatory behavior.”
It is very worrisome that the Task Force is not hearing from an elephant behavior expert. Please make arrangement to hear from some of the people suggested by Ms. Fortgang and Ms. Kane.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Mitchell
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