LOS ANGELES - (Business Wire) Forty-seven-year-old African elephant Ruby, who garnered enormous media attention last year when she left the Los Angeles Zoo for the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) Elephant Sanctuary near Sacramento, Calif., will celebrate her one year
“retirement
” anniversary on May 3, 2008. As part of the celebration, Ruby will receive a visit from Project OneSong and Rowell Foster Children's Positive Plan (RFCPP) foster children (sponsored by Project OneSong) who will also present PAWS with an oversized donation check and give Ruby a special elephant-size carrot cake (her favorite), complete with a giant candle. Also joining them on the trip will be Catherine Doyle, the leader in the campaign to retire Ruby to PAWS.
Project OneSong focuses on teaching at-risk youth how to develop empathy and compassion for animals, others and for themselves, as an alternative to violence. Through many sanctuary trips and interactions with animals often formerly abused, Project OneSong has helped teach kids that although they may have come from a troubled past, they can succeed with love, proper care and healthy interaction with others.
Project OneSong has joined forces with foster kids from the RFCPP for this trip to PAWS’ ARK 2000, which houses Ruby and several other Asian and African elephants, and provides them with over 2500 acres of varied natural terrain to roam, lakes to bathe in, and state-of-the-art elephant barns equipped with heated stalls and therapeutic Jacuzzis. For more information, please log on to www.pawsweb.org.
About Project OneSong
Project OneSong is a humane education program that teaches children how to develop empathy and compassion for animals, others and for themselves, as an alternative to violence. The donation-supported program lives in the classroom using music, art, creative writing and discussion. Outside the classroom, the kids experience once-in-a-lifetime journeys to animal sanctuaries where at-risk youth are exposed to wildlife that has been abused and mistreated. The focus is to show the children that when something is cared for, socialized properly and has a chance to interact with others in a healthy way, that animal functions better. For more information on Project OneSong, please log on to http://www.onesong.org.
Media Inquiries:
Media are invited to join on the trip to the PAWS Sanctuary and Ruby’s 1-year retirement celebration. Please contact Kevin McCourt for more info.
Project OneSong
Kevin McCourt, 818-566-6599
Kevin@OneSong.org
