NSW: Elephants slow, steady, costly trip nears end

AAP General News (Australia)
08-02-2006
NSW: Elephants slow, steady, costly trip nears end

It's cost more than six million dollars .. and taken years to orchestrate .. but the
troubled transfer of eight Asian elephants from Thailand to Australian zoos is in the
home stretch.

Taronga Zoo director GUY COOPER says the elephants are in superb condition .. at their
final quarantine stopover on Australia's Cocos Keeling Islands.

They'll leave in three months for Melbourne Zoo and Sydney's Taronga Zoo .. where they'll
be encouraged to breed.

The transfer's been marred by months of costly delays .. caused by legal wranglings
with animal welfare groups.

AAP RTV pc/hn/wf/bart

KEYWORD: THAI ELEPHANTS (SYDNEY)

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