Sunday August 15, 2010, 1:34 am
S@N
TY

Sunday August 15, 2010, 2:30 am
Thanks Simone

Sunday August 15, 2010, 2:34 am
#75 signed,good to see you back Simone.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 2:35 am
Thank you. It is great to be back Arild.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 2:40 am
Done! Thanks!

Sunday August 15, 2010, 2:58 am
Noted, signing in a minute. Apart from the fact of applying to do this, how does a place that has recently come under scrutiny from the local council ( or has it? I will have to look further to find that out ) even have the audacity and bar-faced cheek to plan to do this? I have been to Bristol Zoo itself, about 2 or 3 years ago, as my son was younger and wanted to see, and I would say that on the surface that zoo looked fairly well run - although there were a couple of issues that troubled me at the time, I remember - but in the UK, councils, licensing, the RSPCA, police/authorities - all these are found severely wanting when it comes to animal care, animal protection, animal abuse.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 3:20 am
Signed thanks. Nice to see you back.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 4:11 am
Noted and signed. Thank you Simone.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 6:16 am
Signed and noted. thanks

Sunday August 15, 2010, 8:32 am
signed and noted,morning simone,thanks!

Sunday August 15, 2010, 8:37 am
# 106 -"Thank you for signing the petition "Stop Noah's Ark Zoo from Opening a New Elephant Exhibit"
Thanks for the post Simone! Noted. ( sorry to hear about your misery in the past )

Sunday August 15, 2010, 8:45 am
Thank you for signing the petition

Sunday August 15, 2010, 9:19 am
just had an "out of office" reply from somerset council, will keep emailing,thanks.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 9:40 am
Noted & signed - thanks Simone!

Sunday August 15, 2010, 9:41 am
signed and noted xx

Sunday August 15, 2010, 9:59 am
signed and noted, Thank you

Sunday August 15, 2010, 10:03 am
Thank you -signed # 115.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 10:16 am
Signed and noted. Thank you, Simone.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 1:10 pm
# 141, thank you Simone.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 1:19 pm
signed dearest Simone, thank-you

Sunday August 15, 2010, 4:38 pm
Signed, thank you!

Sunday August 15, 2010, 5:26 pm
Signed! Good to have you back here Simone!

Sunday August 15, 2010, 5:33 pm
Noted, signed put it on mtyspace, facebook, twitters.
Oh Simone I'm so HAPPY to see you back, we have really missed you:)

Sunday August 15, 2010, 5:46 pm
Noted, signed and posted it on Facebook, thank you.

Sunday August 15, 2010, 8:44 pm
Noted thanks Simone

Sunday August 15, 2010, 9:18 pm
Noted and signed. Thanks, Simone!

Sunday August 15, 2010, 9:27 pm
Thanks!

Sunday August 15, 2010, 9:45 pm
Thank you, noted, signed and posted it on Facebook

Sunday August 15, 2010, 10:31 pm
They are opening a new prison for the elephants. What crimes do elephants do?

Sunday August 15, 2010, 10:57 pm
noted, signed, shared on facebook.
welcome back simone !

Monday August 16, 2010, 2:45 am
You signed this petition on 08/15/10.
Thanks Simone

Monday August 16, 2010, 2:54 am
SIgned thanks...

Monday August 16, 2010, 3:19 am
signed and shared.
thank you Simone

Monday August 16, 2010, 3:21 am
Noted and signed.

Monday August 16, 2010, 3:39 am
Noted and signed. Thanks.

Monday August 16, 2010, 6:53 am
Signed. Thank you

Monday August 16, 2010, 10:13 am
Signed

Monday August 16, 2010, 10:51 am
Signed!

Monday August 16, 2010, 11:04 am
noted and signed- thanks Simone

Monday August 16, 2010, 12:05 pm
Thanks Simone, Signed.

Monday August 16, 2010, 1:44 pm
Noted and Signed. Thanks Simone

Monday August 16, 2010, 2:07 pm
Many thanks, Simone. # 264

Monday August 16, 2010, 3:46 pm
enough with the exploitation and abuse on elephants and any animals in circuses! signed!

Tuesday August 17, 2010, 12:24 am
thanks

Wednesday August 18, 2010, 4:32 pm
noted, signed

Thursday September 9, 2010, 2:41 am
I assume like many of you , I received this response from the zoo:
Thank you for writing to us about our proposed elephant enclosure.

As you are asking us not to proceed with our elephant enclosure, you are presumably content with the standard of elephant keeping in existing zoos in UK and Europe. I am surprised. When the RSPCA recently visited us we both agreed that, although they were totally opposed to keeping elephants in captivity, we agreed that for those that would continue to be in captivity a radical change in their management was needed. It is very difficult to modify an existing site, but much easier to put up a new one.

We are well aware that elephants at their very best are in the wild and I would not wonder if you wanted to give lots of money to keep as many elephants as possible living in ideal situations, especially keeping poachers away and keeping the elephants from being unwelcome neighbours to hungry hard working African farmers.

Unfortunately not all elephants can live like that. Many are poorly kept in zoos around the world. Some are threatened by culling in their native land. Our own plans are to take poorly kept elephants or otherwise dead ones and give them a life that is like no others in the UK. Most animals other than elephants live longer in captivity than in the wild. There are reasons. The RSPCA admit that obesity (caused by, in my view, a terrible diet), bad feet (caused by obesity), space (currently set at less than an acre in UK), and lack of good social interaction between the elephants (which are kept in small and unnatural herds) are among the reasons.

There is a Best Practice of the Coalition of Captive Elephant Keepers, which no zoo in the UK has signed up to, but which was handed to me by the RSPCA (though I already had a copy. We hope to be the first in UK to attempt Best Practice.

Actually I don’t think the wild is all that it is cracked up to be. We are told about the best herds, but not the hungry ones, or those threatening human habitations and those maimed by poachers or unable to keep up with their herd. And we don't know how far elephants walk for preference if they had adequate food and water where they were and no lions. Some people assume elephants want to walk for miles, but I doubt it. We will see here, where they will have further to walk than any other UK zoo and much more than if they were dead!

So like Noah we are rescuing elephants from a worse fate and will be trying for the very best.

Again, thank you for writing to us.

Kind regards
Chris Wilkinson
Head Keeper
Noah's Ark Zoo Farm
Direct line 01275 866903
Noah’s Ark Zoo Farm, Clevedon Rd, Wraxall, Bristol, BS48 1PG

Personally, I could actually agree with his explanations, provided they are the truth and no cheap excuse, I'll never know..

Thursday September 9, 2010, 10:12 am
I wrote back to them asking what size of enclosure they intended having and where the elephants were coming from. This is their reply...

Thank you for your reply. There are elephants in captivity which have too little space at the moment, especially in the winter. We plan to be a home for some of these.

We are allocating 12 acres of grazing, 11 acres of coppiced browse, covered, heated sand yards 3x the size that British zoos recognize as acceptable; a swimming pool to swim three elephants at once. The five freedoms suggest they should be free to express most natural behaviour, which in our view includes breeding. The big sanctuaries sound all very impressive, but their winter indoor accommodation is nowhere near what we plan. It is all very well for people to be anti keeping elephants, but the fact is they are here. Arm chair critics will do nothing for them.

With best wishes

Anthony Bush