IDA and Los Angeles Alliance for Elephants are celebrating the transfer of Ruby, a 46-year-old elephant, from the Los Angeles Zoo to the PAWS sanctuary in Northern California. IDA, animal advocates, and citizens—including California Assemblyman Lloyd Levine and TV game show host Bob Barker—have long urged the move. Barker even pledged $300,000 in matching funds to support Ruby's transfer and care at the sanctuary.

Ruby has been the focus of an IDA campaign since her controversial move to the Knoxville Zoo in 2003 and back to L.A. a year later, after she failed to integrate with the herd there. She was held in solitary confinement at L.A. Zoo since the death of her companion Gita in 2006, even though elephants are highly social and should never live alone. At the PAWS sanctuary, Ruby will be able to roam more than 70 acres of natural landscape—an area more than 500 times the space of her current enclosure—along with other African elephants.

While Ruby enjoys her new life and friendly welcome, Dulary, a 43-year-old Asian elephant is getting settled at her wonderful new home—The Elephant Sanctuary (TES) in Tennessee! After four decades in a decrepit 1940s-era exhibit at Philadelphia Zoo, she is now able to socialize with 15 other Asian elephants and finally be able to stretch her legs on the 2,200-acre habitat.

Almost as soon as she stepped out of the trailer that transported her to TES, Dulary made fast friends with Tara, another one of the sanctuary's elephant residents. "Dulary has remained in the constant company of her new sisters; eating, napping, sharing affection, and exploring her new habitat," writes TES founder Carol Buckley in Dulary's Diary. "Her assimilation into her new life has been remarkably instantaneous." IDA is grateful to everyone who acted on behalf of Ruby and Dulary, especially Los Angeles Alliance for Elephants and Friends of Philly Zoo Elephants.

Following these two important victories, IDA turned our attention to Maggie, the lone elephant at the Alaska Zoo who was recently found prone and unable to stand up on two separate occasions in a week. IDA released to the media a 2004 Alaska Zoo Board report that acknowledged the Zoo could not properly care for Maggie. In a letter to the USDA, IDA charged that, by its own admission, the Alaska Zoo has been violating the federal Animal Welfare Act for years by failing to provide adequate care and conditions for the 27-year-old elephant, and urged the agency to immediately investigate the Zoo and assess Maggie's health.

IDA’s call for the USDA to remove Maggie from the Zoo was strengthened by the Anchorage Assembly, which passed a resolution supporting Maggie's transfer to a suitable facility, and the hundreds of emails to the Zoo's board of directors resulting from our news coverage and alerts. We will continue fighting for Maggie until she is sent to a more appropriate facility where she isn’t forced to spend half the year indoors and all of it alone.