ACTRESS LENDS VOICE AGAINST AUSTRALIAN ELEPHANT IMPORT PLAN

January 16, 2006

Actress against elephant imports

Jan 16, 2006

Taronga Zoo's $40 million rainforest enclosure should be home to

retired circus elephants - not wild Asian beasts, says actor Jessica

Napier.

The former McLeod's Daughter and current The Alice star has joined the

fight to prevent five Asian elephants being imported from Thailand to

Sydney.

Napier said the zoo's new purpose-built enclosure should be used as a

retirement home for Australia's six ageing circus elephants.

" If the Thai elephants are imported they will be taken out of their

natural habitat and will have to be cruelly domesticated before they

arrive in Australia, " she said today in a statement.

After months of wrangling, the RSPCA and International Fund for Animal

Welfare last month lost an appeal to overturn a decision to import the

animals.

The zoo's success in winning approval for the imports rested mainly on

the fact it has established a breeding and conservation programme for

the endangered elephants.

But Greens MP Lee Rhiannon said the import plan was more about

boosting revenues and attracting visitors to the zoo.

" The Greens strongly support elephant breeding programs, but these are

best conducted in their natural habitat, " she said.

" We have not been able to find any cases where zoo bred elephants are

returned to the wild.

" The few baby elephants born in zoos are given to other zoos. "

Rhiannon said Taronga Zoo had already admitted that no elephants bred

in captivity would be returned to the wild.

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