OPEN LETTER TO THE ALPERT FAMILY

To the Family Administrators of the Hershel and Barbara Alpert Charitable Gift Fund

IS THIS THE LEGACY YOU WANT ASSOCIATED WITH YOUR NAME?

Asian elephant Ruth was killed at Buttonwood Park Zoo on December 27, 2024.  But she wasn't just killed. Her head was sawed off, split open, and her brain removed.  Then all four limbs were sawn off, she was disemboweled, and her headless, footless, disemboweled bloody torso was dumped into a pit at the zoo.

Why?

The zoo would have dumped her body at the Crapo Hill landfill but it was full.

Ruth deserved better.

And so does Emily, the surviving elephant at the Zoo, and the ladt living elephant in Massachusetts.

This desecration of Ruth's corpse was neither scientific nor typical. Elephant necropsies do not usually include decapitation unless there is a question why the elephant died--such as an unexpected collapse or a seizure. Nor was the limb removal for "science." A research study of postmortem imaging for 24 limbs of 20 captive elephants at U.S. zoos was done in 2017. 

But perhaps the zoo industry didn't like the results. It showed that the deprivations of zoo captivity results in crippling foot diseases and disorders.

At Ruth's death, the Buttonwood Park Zoological Society received  $5.66 million in securities as a "legacy" donation. It did not go to benefit Asian elephants, the other specimens at the zoo, or even the zoo's owner, the City of New Bedford.

Some legacy.

Dead baby monkeys, baby red pandas, baby Canada lynx, and baby pudus; a zoo so ridden with disease that HPAI (bird flu) jumped species last year and killed a harbor seal and a beaver; others died of preventable  diseases such as toxiplasmosis, clostridium, and mycobacterium avian complex, which are also transmissible to humans. Volunteers for the Society are often seen power-washing the beaver pool and cleaning primate exhibits without any protective gear, not even masks.

Let's face it, Buttonwood Park Zoo is an unhealthy place for zoo animals and people alike. 

In all, over 500 specimens have died at that zoo in 9 years, including  20 primates and 23  members of endangered species, 12 critically so.

So we ask again, is this the legacy you want associated with your family name?

Please redirect your charitable gift funds to relocate Emily to the Elephant Refuge in Georgia,  the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, or the Performing Animal Welfare Society Sanctuary in California.

Use any remaining funds to help rehome the survivors of this death camp to suitable sanctuaries, rehabilitation centers or other facilities capable of  appropriate care.

These actions would honor your parents and leave a legacy of compassion and respect for all living creatures in your family's name for future generations.