Child Elephant Thong Dee Falls Pregnant
SHOCK and ahh in the world of elephant husbandry.
In Taronga Zoo, Sydney, Thong Dee is almost five months into her 22-month pregnancy.
Guy Cooper, the zoo’s director, calls it an “historic event”. And in Australia it most probably is.
Good news, then. But Erica Martin, Asian Pacific Director of the International Fund of Animal Welfare, says it is “completely irresponsible”.
Thong Dee is aged nine. This, a voice tells the Mail, is “the equivalent of allowing your 12-year old daughter to become pregnant”.
Thong Dee is the “gymslip elephant pregnancy”.
The RSPCA’s chief scientist, Bidda Jones, says the captive management plan adopted by Taronga stipulates that elephants “should be at least 11 years old before conceiving… If this cow is pregnant then what it shows is Taronga Zoo’s inability to manage the elephants by the guidelines they agreed to.”
The zoo’s spokesman, Mark Williams says the father, Gung, had been mating with all the females. “He’s at them all the time. He came on second flight [of elephants]. He got off the flight, had a drink, and mounted Thong Dee.”
Much controversy. But we are not told how an aroused bull can be deterred from impregnating a receptive and fertile adolescent elephant.
Perhaps dad* or Erica Martin has a word in the chap’s ear, and takes care not to back away or all over…
* Anyone seen Simon Dee?
Posted: 15th, February 2008 | In: Tabloids Comments (2) | TrackBack | Permalink
