Thanks for your support guys. Every voice helps. AG- yeah, you would think right? Unfortuantely, there's a lot of animal abuse and neglect (as wellas child abuse/neglect) in this area already. So if they were born and raised here (as I suspect Mr Seidon has) they are likely to have grown up around such poor treatment of animals as the norm.
What's worse is the American Zoos and Aquariums Association (AZA) still ok's the use of bullhooks and other clearly inhumane tools for controlling elephants in zoos. If you read the petition, you'd see why the AZA has their hands in this mess too - if El Paso Zoo surrenders the elephants, the zoo will lose its standing with the AZA and could close down. Actually, I think that would be a good thing. A sad thing for the city, as this is a very poor place and many children here have very limited opportunities to see things beyoind their neighborhoods. But if the zoo won't care properly for its animals, it shouldn't be open. Period. And if they'll do this to such high-profile, "star attraction" animals like elephants, god knows what they do to other animals.
I personally have never set foot in our zoo out pure disgust. I've been to good zoos, and I've been to animals rescus and sanctuaries. When I drive our zoo, it's a depressing site, even if you didn't know it's history. I have run into their glowing, pamphlet-waving volunteers at the mall when they had a PR run to keep the elephants last year - it made me so mad all I could do was tell them "The elephants belong in a sanctuary" and walk off.
Anyhow, thanks again. There's a few typos in my post, and I'll try to go back and fix them when I have more time.