An animal-rights activist was banned from the Philadelphia Zoo for online comments directed at the facility’s chief executive. Marianne Bessey, leader of Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants, wrote in an Internet chat room called the Elephant Connection about Dulary, an elephant kept in a concrete barn since August. She said zoo director Alexander L. “Pete” Hoskins might suffer nightmares about Dulary, a 42-year-old, injured elephant in his care, and might indeed be past his own life expectancy, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The zoo notified police of Bessey’s remarks. Bessey and her supporters want the zoo’s four elephants, currently housed in a small yard and an 1,800-square-foot barn, moved to a preserve in Tennessee where they can roam freely. Chicago, Detroit and San Francisco zoos have closed elephant exhibits amid controversy about their habitats. © Copyright 2006 by United Press International

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