{"id":761054,"date":"2020-07-30T07:52:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=761054"},"modified":"2020-07-30T07:54:59","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T11:54:59","slug":"shameless-their-gofundme-campaign-claims-commerford-zoo-cant-afford-care-for-minnie-the-elephant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/animalrightswatch.us\/?p=761054","title":{"rendered":"SHAMELESS: Commerford Zoo’s GoFundMe campaign claims they can\u2019t afford care for Minnie the elephant"},"content":{"rendered":"\t
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The Commerford Zoo is in dire financial straights. For the sake of Minnie, and the many other animals at their facility, they need to let them go to a sanctuary, and do so immediately.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/blockquote>\n\n

LAUREN CHOPLIN:<\/strong> For over two years, the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) has been fighting in court and alongside local activists to free Minnie, a 48-year-old wild-born Asian elephant, to one of the two accredited elephant sanctuaries in the US, both of which have offered her lifelong care at no cost to the Commerford Zoo. Recently the NhRP learned of an online fundraiser set up by the family that sold Minnie (whom they call Mignon) to the Commerford Zoo in 1976.<\/p>\n

With the authorization of the Commerford Zoo, the GoFundMe page seeks to raise $2.4 million to enable them to meet Minnie\u2019s most basic needs, including food and veterinary care, because COVID-19 has \u201cimpoverished the farm that supports them,\u201d which is \u201cin desperate need of support,\u201d according to the fundraiser description. Created over a month ago and having raised only $1,345 to date, the fundraiser states that Minnie \u201chas been directly affected\u201d by the lockdowns: \u201cWhen the humans cannot work, the animals suffer too”…<\/p>\n

The NhRP sent letters to local, state, and federal agencies urging them to immediately investigate what a Goshen-based traveling circus has publicly acknowledged is its inability to provide basic care to the elephant in its custody as a result of the COVID-19 lockdowns. \u201cWe were extremely worried about Minnie well before the COVID-19 crisis and are even more so now,\u201d said Courtney Fern, the NhRP\u2019s Director of Government Relations and Campaigns… \u201cWe understand the Commerford Zoo is in dire straights,\u201d Fern said. \u201cFor their sake and the sake of the many animals at their facility, they need to let Minnie go to a sanctuary. It is abhorrent for them not to do so immediately”…<\/p>\n

The NhRP finds this fundraiser especially disappointing and egregious, said Fern, because the organizers, who\u2019ve been in touch with the NhRP multiple times since 2018, and the Commerford Zoo \u201call know Minnie has a place waiting for her in a sanctuary, and it would cost them nothing to do the right thing and release her.\u201d Fern further stated: \u201cThat they now refer to the Commerfords\u2019 property\u2014where Minnie is controlled by a bullhook, confined most of the time to a dark, barren barn, and lacks the company of other elephants\u2014as a sanctuary is an absurd ploy to solicit donations they wouldn\u2019t need if they released her to an actual elephant sanctuary”…<\/p>\n

The NhRP submitted a complaint online to the USDA\u2019s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and via email to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Torrington Police Department\u2019s Animal Control Division, all of which have a responsibility to investigate animal welfare concerns pertaining to the Commerford Zoo. SOURCE…<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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