"Gay" Elephant Draws Fire From Polish Politician

Ninio, a male elephant acquired by a Poland's Poznan Zoo who has demonstrated a total lack of interest in the ladies, is now drawing fire from Michal Grzes, a conservative politician angered over what he sees as a wasted investment. Here are Grzes' statements, from the Telegraph:

"We didn't pay 37 million zlotys (7.6 million pounds) for the largest elephant house in Europe to have a gay elephant live there," said Mr Grzes, who is from the right-wing opposition Law and Justice party.

"We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?" said.

However, the zoo's director is defending Ninio from Grzes' haranguing by arguing that the recalcitrant elephant may be too young to decide his sexual orientation just yet. Ninio, being ten years-old, is four years short of elephant-sexual-maturity, according to the Telegraph.

Comments

[Yamunation]

From what I see and read, seems like captive animals often don't mate. Zoos sometimes artifically impregnante an animal (which is animal abuse if you ask me).

You can't stick two elephants in a cage and expect them to mate just because they can, just like you can't expect two humans to fall in love, just because they are of the opposite sex. This elephant is probably tired of being gawked and and prodded, and just wants to be left alone.

[rosiebond007]

Where is the patience man ??

This is a young kid - what's the hurry ?

[Skeptiqone]

Oh come on. The gay elephant will make the cage so beautiful that expensive cool animals from all over the world will want to live there! He should consider dieting though, (since I oughta know), the gays like em fit and muscle bound.

[roblabrousse]

I hear the "straights" like e that way too !!! What kind of arse are you? You should change your name to "Stereotypiqone". Get an education , you need one.

[kandlefly]

This guy has just got to be a Republican. Somebody tell him to come to the USA and contact John Boehner please.

[quasar]

He's welcome in Iowa.

[AllanF]

A storm is gathering.­..

[ammonman]

LOL! ROFL!

[AbbieHoffman2]

a hard rains gonna fall

[Skeptiqone]

now that is funny...th­ank you

[SOLERSO68]

for 37 million zlotkies !@ we pay for a gay elephant?? i would think a gay elephant would be worth at LEAST 80 million zlotskies.

[loki]

This reminds me, wasnt there some kind of religious nut attack on the gay penguins at the New York zoo a while back? and didnt some insist that animals could not be gay, as its a choice?

[KataVideo]

"We were supposed to have a herd, but as Ninio prefers male friends over females how will he produce offspring?"

Adopt? Hasn't he ever read "Dumbo Has Two Dads"?

[SOLERSO68]

LOL

[roblabrousse]

He'll treat them with more respect and understanding than they could get from the straight guys.

[hart444]

This has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard.

[jsarets]

Yeah, 10% of animals are homosexual, and 75% of them live in cooperative rather than competitive social structures. But we don't like to think about such things...

[Victoria-nola]

The text says that the elephant is still 4 years from sexual maturity and is now only 10 years old. This is exactly like human elementary school where some kids are becoming sexual and others aren't, and the ones that aren't yet interested in things sexual are called gay. If the elephant is too young to be sexual, what is this Grzes guy's problem? Methinks he doth projects too much.

Are so-called "conservatives" (who seem to conserve nothing at all, ever) gone crazy worldwide? Some kind of critical mass thing where suddenly they all show their true colors? It would be funny if I weren't worried about just how crazy they are acting.

[tfred]

considering the lengthy gestation period of ordinary straight elephants, it's going to take a hell of a long time to fill that 37,000,000 zlotys elephant house. Plus before the female will reproduce, she will have to raise the baby elephant to teen age. So I suggest, they leave the "boys" alone and just buy more straight elephants.

[karela]

Hmmm, I wonder if this politician gets mad when ten year old girls don't have an urge to have babies because they aren't sexually mature yet? Little boys tend to avoid girls and hang out with little boys-----until the old hormones kick in and girls start to look good. Ninio isn't sexually mature and won't be for several years yet. And, in the picture, he sure looks like a happy little boy doesn't he? Leave the poor kid alone and let him be a kid until he grows up. Geesh!

[Usama]

There is no such thing as 'gay' elephants. Anthropmorphizing animal life to justify political agendas is the height of pretentious narcissism, from both the pro-gay movement and rightwing.

[JustMyWords]

Use whatever terminology you wish, but it is still an established fact that animals exhibit behavior that in humans is termed homosexual. In animals, the actual terminology that is used is that it "exhibits homosexual behavior".