News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 27, 2009   

Catherine Doyle, 323-301-5730
Suzanne Roy, 919-697-9389

World Elephant Authorities, Conservationists, International Zoo Experts, Pioneering Animal Behaviorists Urge Los Angeles Zoo to Close Elephant Exhibit, Send Billy to Sanctuary

Los Angeles, Calif. . . . One of the world’s foremost authorities on elephants, several prominent international zoo experts, a renowned conservation biologist and two pioneering neuroscientists/animal behaviorists whose work has been featured in the New York Times, on CBS 60 Minutes, and published in Nature, are among the experts calling on the Los Angeles Zoo to close its elephant exhibit and send its solitary elephant, Billy to a natural habitat sanctuary.

Included in a stack of expert letters and statements hand-delivered to the Los Angeles City Council and released publicly today by In Defense of Animals (IDA) are pleas from:

Joyce Poole, Ph.D. – one of the world’s foremost elephant authorities, studied elephants for over 30 years as Research Director for Amboseli Trust for Elephants, the longest study of elephants in the world. Current director of research and conservation for Elephant Voices.

“All rhetoric aside, there is ample scientific evidence to declare that an urban zoo - the LA Zoo in this case - cannot meet the basic interests of an animal as large, as socially complex and as intelligent as an elephant. Add to these attributes long life, long-term memory, self-awareness and the ability to empathize, and it doesn¹t take rocket science to come to the conclusion that elephants need to be able to roam over more than a couple of acres in order to stay mentally and physically well.”  

Peter Stroud - 27 years of zoo experience, former Senior Curator Melbourne Zoo and Former Director of Werribee Open Range Zoo in Australia.
 
“No urban zoo in the world currently caters appropriately for the needs of elephants.  Attempts to do so by creating small groups of disparate individuals, in small exhibits of a few acres, where constant control of individual animals by keepers must be maintained at all times just to ensure some level of exercise and mental stimulation, are wholly inadequate and ethically questionable. . . . The space devoted to elephants at LA Zoo could be devoted to a variety of other species in a far more cost effective way, providing higher levels of engagement and enjoyment for the people of Los Angeles, free of ethical doubt and controversy. . . The LA Zoo has a brilliant opportunity to join those urban zoos that have rightly decided that indeed they cannot adequately cater for elephants.  The remaining elephant Billy can and should be sent to a Sanctuary.  In many ways California is perceived as leading the world as a humane and progressive society engaged with environmental issues.  Sending Billy to retirement in spacious country facilities would confirm that view, while building what will inevitably be very expensive cramped and out-dated urban facilities for elephants, would not.”
 
Robert P D Atkinson, MSc DPhil, Head Wildlife Department, Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, former Curator of Woburn Safari Park, UK

“I ask that the LA Zoo authorities are not taken in by those who state that the planned expansion will - somehow - address all the ills zoo elephants have to face. Compared with sub-standard zoos the new exhibit might look an improvement. But to an elephant it is still an impoverished, stifling environment which pays no more than passing respect to elephant biology. LA Zoo will still keep elephants in enclosures a fraction of the size elephants have evolved to traverse, in groups of a structure no wild elephant would ever live in.”

Gay Bradshaw, Ph.D., Ph.D. Executive Director, Kerulos Center, pioneer in the field of stress and trauma recovery in long-lived species, including elephants.  

Lori Marino, Ph.D., neuroscience and behavioral biology, Emory University, 18 years experience in neuroanatomy, intelligence, and self-awareness in other species.

“Billy’s head bobbing is consistent with severe mental and emotional distress documented in caged animals and imprisoned humans. Accurate, decades-long research and science ethically compels a decision to send Billy to sanctuary and close the L.A. Zoo elephant exhibit.”

These experts join the many other authorities who have joined the fight for Billy’s freedom:

• Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, D.B.E., M.B.S., UNEP Global 500 Laureate, 50 years experience in elephant conservation, leading authority on rearing, rehabilitation and release of orphaned elephant calves.

• Keith Lindsay, Ph.D.  – renowned conservation biologist, 30 years of professional experience in research, management, and conservation with regard to African elephants and their ecosystems.

• David Hancocks – Trained architect, former design coordinator then director of Woodland Park Zoo; founding director of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson, former director of the Werribee Open Range Zoo in Australia

• Will Travers, CEO - Born Free Foundation, formed in 1984 by his parents Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna, stars of the 1960’s film Born Free. Will oversees a wide range of conservation projects in Africa and Asia and campaigns to help captive animals throughout the world.

• Gary Kuehn, DVM – 23 years as a veterinarian at Los Angeles Zoo.

• Lisa Kane, J.D. - senior editor and a contributing author to “Best Practices for Captive Elephant Well-Being,” Tufts University, 2009

• John Freeze – zoo animal husbandry manager (retired) North Carolina Zoo, 25 years experience caring for zoo animals.

• Marilyn Fackler-Gray - former L.A. Zoo keeper for 25 years; 8 of those years working with elephants.

“These international authorities and zoo professionals have come forward to urge Los Angeles to do the right thing for elephants, not out of self-interest, but rather out of a deep respect for and strong dedication to protecting elephants,” said Catherine Doyle, a director of In Defense of Animals’ elephant campaign.  “By contrast, the only experts defending the zoo’s misguided plans are individuals who receive their paychecks from the zoo industry or earn their income from exhibiting captive animals.”
 
The experts join a large number of celebrities have joined the call for Billy’s freedom, including Lily Tomlin, Bob Barker, Kim Basinger, Richard and Lauren Shuler Donner, John Paul Jones DeJoria, Willie Nelson, James Franco, Brendan Frasier, Jason Patric, Susan Sarandon, Robert Culp, Kathy Joosten, Bill Maher, James Cromwell, Jorja Fox, Alicia Silverstone, Ed Begley, Esai Morales, Bernie Williams, Jane Velez-Mitchell, Cher, Nicolette Sheriden, Madeleine Stowe, Goldie Hawn, Tippi Hedren, Eric Roberts, Bea Arthur, Persia White and others.  
 
Two celebrities have supported the zoo: Betty White and Slash, a reptile enthusiast and former guitarist for Guns and Roses.