Let my elephants go: A new Canadian documentary spotlights animal welfare in zoos

Just in time for Passover, Fern Levitt has a message of freedom for Canadian audiences—about elephants. On April 11, her new documentary, Lucy: The Stolen Lives of Elephants, will begin streaming nationwide on CBC Gem. The film casts a harsh spotlight on nearly two dozen elephants owned by parks and zoos in Canada, most notably Lucy, of the Edmonton Valley Zoo, whom protesters have called to be released in recent years due to her age and declining health. To make this film, Levitt spent three years reporting on what she and others believe are irrefutable animal rights abuses. And it isn’t the first time she’s done it: her last film focused on the mistreatment of sled dogs in Alaska’s iconic Iditarod race. After learning that some sled dogs were gassed to death, she couldn’t help but draw comparisons to the Holocaust, which had been a previous artistic focus of hers. On today’s episode of The CJN Daily, Levitt joins Ellin Bessner to explain why she went undercover to document the treatment of elephants around the world, including Lucy and the approximately 20 living at Ontario’s African Lion Safari—whose management she says has since threatened to sue her.

Related links

• Watch the documentary “Lucy: The Stolen Lives of Elephants”, on CBC Gem, beginning April 11.
• Learn more about the volunteers lobbying for Lucy’s freedom, on their website Leap for Lucy.
• Read about Fern Levitt and her family volunteering to help an orphanage in South Africa, in The CJN, in 2008.
• Read the transcript on our website at Thecjn.ca

Credits

• Host and writer: Ellin Bessner (@ebessner)
• Production team: Zachary Kauffman (senior producer), Andrea Varsany (producer), Michael Fraiman (executive producer), Mark Weisblott, editorial director.
• Music: Dov Beck-Levine

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