A painting by an elephant at Fort Worth zoo in Texas has raised $7,000 dollars for tsunami victims.

Thai-born Rasha applied brush to canvas in support of the American Red Cross International Response Fund. The North Hills Lincoln Mercury in Hurst stumped up the winning bid on eBay.

That Texans are willing to pay substantial sums for pachyderm art should come as no surprise - a recent eBay auction (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=208&item=3950669344&rd=1) for a rare Lone Star state snowball eventually topped out at $92 after frenzied bidding at one stage raised the price to $20k.

We assume that the bidder in question eventually sobered up and thought the better of it, or that eBay intervened to put a stop to the madness. ®

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