EUROGATE Intermodal to sponsor elephant Lai Sinh at Hagenbeck’s Zoo in Hamburg

Hamburg, 14 February 2007 +++ “No financial leeway left at Hagenbeck’s Zoo”. This was the headline in the Hamburg press in the autumn of 2006.

Around 2,500 animals from 365 species are currently housed at Hagenbeck’s Zoo. And they all have an enormous appetite. The cost of feeding them for one single day is around € 2,600. Overall daily costs at the Zoo are € 24,000. “In a good year, entrance fees just cover running costs,” Cord Crasselt told us, Biologist at Hagenbeck’s. “If it’s a wet summer, though, there’s not enough to go round.”

Hagenbeck’s is the only zoo in Europe that does not receive regular public funding to guarantee its future. This means it is dependent upon outside help, which was what persuaded EUROGATE Intermodal to take over the sponsorship for the female elephant Lai Sinh, in the form of part of the costs for her food and care.

It was a consistent step for EUROGATE Intermodal to take, as the company had already chosen the elephant as its advertising and marketing motif. Since ancient times, the elephant has had the reputation of being man’s reliable partner and an intelligent animal with a strong character.

“It was a point of honour for us to support a Hagenbeck elephant. It’s just as impossible to think of Hamburg without Hagenbeck’s as to imagine it without the port. So we committed ourselves to supporting both commercial factors,” was how Lars Hedderich, Managing Director of EUROGATE Intermodal, explained the step.

EUROGATE Intermodal has found the solution to the various difficult clearance situations at North German sea ports in its private rail system, boxXpress. With it, the company has managed to maintain both Bremerhaven’s and Hamburg’s competitive position as ports. By becoming Lai Sinh’s sponsor, EUROGATE Intermodal hopes to contribute just as much to maintaining one of Hamburg’s important tourist and commercial factors, Hagenbeck’s Zoo.

By becoming a sponsor, EUROGATE Intermodal also commits itself to working for the Friends of Hagenbeck’s Zoo, a charitable association, the objective of which is to promote the protection of animals by giving intrinsic and material support.

The Association of the Friends of Hagenbeck’s Zoo arranges animal sponsorships. By doing so, it extends the financial scope the Zoo so dearly needs, as the sponsorships enable projects to be fulfilled which could otherwise not be carried out. Expensive buildings, such as the open parrot enclosure and the elephant “maternity unit” could only be financed in this way. And when the elephants again eat their way through their food budget, there’s always a sponsor to step in. To date only 150 animals have found sponsors, which is still far too few.