News
Ryan Hawk/Woodland Park Zoo
Guests enjoy outdoor dining and entertainment at the 34th annual Jungle Party, which raised $1.7 million for the Woodland Park Zoo July 9.
Zoo raises $1.7 million with 2010 Jungle Party
Ferocious bidding on auction items, up-close animal encounters, dining al fresco, and live entertainment all contributed to a roaring success of raising $1.7 million at Woodland Park Zoo’s Jungle Party. The premier fundraiser held July 9 exceeded its goal by $300,000.
The 34th annual Jungle Party was themed “Big Claws, Big Cause” to commemorate the zoo's felines, such as snow leopards, jaguars and Sumatran tigers.
Nearly 1,000 civic-minded patrons converged on the zoo’s North Meadow to raise funds that will help the zoo continue to provide exemplary animal care, offer engaging education programs and partner with conservation projects around the world and locally, according to a Woodland Park Zoo press release.
A record-breaking $832,000 was raised among the $1.7 million for this year’s Fund-Our Future: Animal Care.
“These critical Fund-Our-Future dollars will help us support the zoo’s exceptional animal and veterinary care and exhibit upgrades," Jungle Party Co-Chair Rick Alvord, a member of the zoo's board of directors, said in the press release. "These funds will help advance some important initiatives, including modernizing all animal diets, keeping pace with technologically advanced medical equipment and partnering with other communities around the world to help prevent animal to human emergent disease."
A few live action items ignited some friendly bidding wars: a safari to Kenya sold for $21,000; a day with the zoo’s veterinarians sold twice at $8,500 each; a gourmet dinner with the zoo’s gorillas also sold twice at $8,000 apiece.
“We are touched by the generosity of our Jungle Party patrons who have made this year’s fundraiser a roaring success," zoo President and CEO Dr. Deborah Jensen said in the press release.
As it was last year, the Woodland Park Zoo's Jungle Party was protested by Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants, who aim to secure the release of the zoo's three elephants to a sanctuary in Tennessee.
This year's protest featured three women representing the three elephants. One woman was caged in a 4-foot by 4-foot enclosure, the equivalent of the elephants' barn stalls, and all three women performed neurotic behaviors exhibited by the elephants, according to Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants.
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Comments
What's best for the elephants
Woodland Park Zoo may do conservation work in the wild, however, it does not absolve them of keeping elephants on display in an environment that causes them to be sick. The law suit filed by ALDF, which can be read on Friends of Woodland Park Zoo Elephants’ web site, details how WPZ’s environment has caused the elephants to be very sick and getting sicker.
Experts outside the zoo industry, with no financial advantage, say that about 250 acres is the minimum for an elephant to be physically and psychologically healthy. The 2,700 acre Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has offered our elephants a home for life at no cost to the Zoo.
At Woodland Park Zoo the elephants share less than 1 acre and are locked up 16- 17 hours a day for 7 months of the year (due to our wet and cold climate). The human equivalent of their barn stall is a 4 foot square closet. Their neurotic repetitive behavior is not “dancing” as children yell out; it is the result of decades of severe confinement and other traumas. Suffering is not entertainment but sadly that is exactly what we are teaching our kids.
Locked in the shower room
What a tragic irony that $25K was donated for a trip to Kenya while Watoto, a Kenyan African elephant, is locked up in the shower room at the zoo for 17 hours a day; deprived of ever being with another African elephant.
Woodland Park Zoo's faulty animal care
In the zoo's press release about their "Jungle Party" which the News Tribune printed verbatim the line saying this social event will "raise funds that will help the zoo continue to provide exemplary animal care" disturbs me. Locking an intelligent, curious, family-oriented giant elephant alone with nothing to do (they only sleep 4 hours) for 17 hours a day 7 months a year hardly qualifies as "exemplary animal care".
Opposite of Success
While the article indicates the great success of the Jungle Party who "exceeded its goal" of raising dollars, I would not say that these "civic-minded patrons" succeeded in helping the three poor Elephants, Watoto, Chai and Bamboo. When will these people show any wisdom and compassion for these unfortunate prisoners locked up in such small quarters? Pachycherms need space, lots of space and WPZ fails to provide it for them. The Jungle Party is a disgrace and a failure for these poor Elephants!
Watoto suffers while "patrons" party
There is a tragic irony in someone donating $25K for a trip to Kenya while a Kenyan African elephant, Watoto, is locked up in the shower room at the zoo for 17 hours a day and deprived of being able to live with other African elephants or even the chance to live like an elephant.
Zoo Elephants: Exotic Backdrops
Looking at the photo of the zoo "patrons" wining and dining the night away at the Jungle Party fundraiser while elephants Bamboo, Watoto, and Chai languish in their tiny barn rooms is nauseating. It is like looking at people attending a soiree at an alternative country club that happens to have exotic animals as a backdrop. Can all those people really be that oblivious? What a sad situation.
Why does it always have to go back to elephants?
I'm not sure why everyone assumes the money is going to elephants. Or why the comments go directly to how horrible it is with the elephants, so why should people support the zoo?
The zoo raised money FOR THE ENTIRE ZOO! There are tons of other animals there that the money will be utilized for. The theme was Big Claws, Big Cause. Not Big Tusks, Big Bucks.
The zoo supports many conservation efforts, from Snow Leopards to Brown Bears, to even, yes, elephants. The money is going to assist ALL the animals.
I'm just not sure how every single story about the zoo can possibly be turned into a "Save the Elephants/Zoo-bashing session" on the forums. When the Nocturnal Exhibit closed, all the comments were about elephants. It's like you people think all the zoo has are elephants and everything else doesn't matter.
If you cared about elephants, and didn't just want to bitch about elephants in zoos, then you would want to learn more about ALL of the environment, and care about ALL the inhabitants that elephants share their world with.
I think that's what the patrons were doing. Showing their support to ALL the animals, not just one.
Way to go, Woodland Park! I hope that money goes toward something terrific for the animals.
Save the Elephants Now
The previous "guest" has equated Save the Elephants as zoo bashing. I think this helps to illustrate the zoo self-protectionist mentality in which campaigning to save the elephants equates to "zoo bashing".
The fact is the zoo has nothing to be proud of in refusing to let the long-suffering elephants retire to a sanctuary. Wining and dining the night away at a zoo fundraiser while these animals continue to suffer is hideous and helps show the callousness of these "patrons". Having fun in a zoo setting is all important to them. Helping these poor animals has no importance to them at all.