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1999: Bunny
You wouldn't know by looking at well-adjusted and highly social Bunny today that she spent 45 years as a lone elephant at an Evansville, Indiana, zoo. When PETA first met her, her only "companion" was a brown ball that she used as a "security blanket."
Standing on concrete for decades caused problems for Bunny's feet, so local people started a campaign to retire her. We helped by meeting with zoo personnel, sending letters to City Council members, and testifying at a public hearing. The vote by the Evansville Parks Board was unanimous—Bunny would retire to The Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee.
Unlike the zoo, where she was made to live cruelly isolated in a small, barren enclosure, never feeling the grass beneath her feet or being able to roam or socialize, the sanctuary made her feel right at home in a grassland environment. There, she could feed, graze, and forage with her friends, as elephants were meant to do.
When she first arrived at her new home, Bunny still had her brown ball by her side. At first she was nervous, never losing sight of her ball. But soon, she lost her fear. Bunny is now "one of the girls," loved and accepted by all the elephants. These days, Bunny leaves her brown ball behind.
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