Been a while since we've heard from Lily Tomlin, easily the most famous faces among the concerned citizens for Jenny who refuse to lose their battle to move the elephant to the sanctuary in Tennessee. The city's steadfast refusal to pack the elephant's trunks has Tomlin mighty miffed today in a lengthy posting to her Women on the Web page. She's getting awfully political up in this joint -- look out, city council, or she'll do to you what she done to David O. Russell. An excerpt:
In today's hard times, one must question the economic sense of keeping Jenny at the Dallas Zoo, when she could retire at no cost to the city to the peace and safety of the sanctuary. It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to just maintain a single elephant in a zoo. The City of Dallas plans to spend $30 million alone to build a controversial 3.75 elephant exhibit to house up to five elephants, which critics contend will still be woefully inadequate to meeting Jenny's needs. And, all the while, thousands of people in Dallas are losing their jobs and homes, causing the tax base to inevitably shrink. Many want the City of Dallas to retire Jenny to TES and direct that money into much-needed civic services.
Let Jenny go to the Sanctuary. Let her welfare come before the profits of a zoo. City and zoo officials in Dallas have shown only their own political self-interest and complete inurement to Jenny's plight; yet, activists in Dallas are not giving up on retiring Jenny to a better life.
Please continue to phone and e-mail the Dallas City Council and the Dallas Mayor, Tom Leppert. If you have friends and family in Dallas, urge them to bring Jenny up to the candidates running in opposition to incumbents in the May, 2009, City Council election.
