emancipated elephants!

The Freep's URL for this article says it all; Winky and Wanda will not be going to Columbus after all, but PAWS down in Southern California. Instead of being cold and cramped and surrounded by younger, rowdier elephants, "the girls" will share one hundred sunny, warm acres with a few other elephants, including two from San Francisco.

It's not indicated whether the petition I asked y'all to sign (and thank you, everyone who did) made any difference--the paper cites the discovery that Wanda might have herpes as the reason that the Columbus Zoo decided not to take the girls--but I like to think the pressure we brought to bear might have had something to do with the decision.

Whatever the case, it's good news.