Ad campaign launched to get zoo to move Lucy

Animal rights group Zoocheck Canada is launching a billboard and bus shelter campaign next week to pressure Edmonton city council to move the Valley Zoo's Asian elephant to a sanctuary in the United States.

The billboard shows a photo of Lucy the elephant along with the message "Your tax dollars pay for her suffering."  Ads that will be seen in bus shelters say, "Isolation and a bitter cold winter on the way.  Hasn't she endured enough?"

"This is a city issue," Zoocheck's campaign manager Julie Woodyer. "This is about taxpayer dollars and if people aren't aware of that, I want to make sure that they are."

Lucy is the only elephant in a Canadian zoo that lives alone. She has been on her own since September 2007, when the Valley Zoo's other elephant, Samantha, was moved to be part of a breeding program at a zoo in North Carolina. The elephant has lived at the zoo for most of her life.

Animal rights advocates believe Lucy's health is poor. Her health and isolation have prompted a campaign to have Lucy moved to one of two elephant sanctuaries in the United States.

Officials at the Valley Zoo have rebuffed offers to relocate Lucy, arguing a move could aggravate health conditions like a wrongly-positioned molar in her mouth.

Edmonton city councillor Karen Leibovici was not impressed by the latest campaign which she says is inaccurate.

"These posters are made to look as if Lucy is in a terrible situation, which is not the case," she said.

"Edmontonians have faith in the zoo and in the staff that are at the zoo.  Edmontonians know what the real facts are with regards to Lucy and the care that she receives at the Valley Zoo."

Staff at the zoo treat Lucy well, Leibovici said.

"To state that she's not being taken care of adequately, that in fact she's suffering and that she's isolated, is far from the truth."

Zoocheck has engaged some high-profile help in their campaign to get Lucy moved from the zoo.

In February, retired U.S. game show host and animal rights advocate Bob Barker called on the city to move Lucy to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, one of the sanctuaries that has offered to take her.

Three months later, Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, Nico Ricci, Jane Urquhart, Barbara Gowdy and 31 other Canadian authors sent a letter to council urging them to get an independent assessment of Lucy's health and to move her from the zoo.