As mentioned yesterday, Metro's Oregon Zoo got their zoo foundation to pony up $400,000 to buy their elephant calf and her sire from the California-based owners of the animals. Due to widespread public indignation when it was revealed that OZ didn't actually own the calf, managers there didn't have much choice; it was either work out an arrangement or face continued negative PR.
The Zero finally got around to posting an article about the transaction, and timing's evidently working in the Metro zoo's favor: the Friday news dump is a time-tested way of ensuring minimal coverage, and thus far there have been only five comments on the article - a far cry from the general blathering and bleating that occurred in the wake of the initial stories regarding ownership.
That may change in the coming days, as the professional animal "Rights" activists begin to take note. They raised considerable fuss regarding the zoo's housing of eight elephants there in the first place, fuss which hit a dull roar when it emerged that OZ has no intention of carrying it the elephant management plan under which they sold the public on footing the bills for a bond measure.
