"RUBY"
by Bill Dyer

(Following are remarks made by Bill Dyer before the L.A. Zoo Commission on July 20th concerning Ruby, a 43 year African elephant, on loan to the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee.)

In 1965, Ruby was caught in the wild, taken from her family and shipped thousands of miles across sea and land from Africa to Southern California.

How did that make her feel?

Did she suffer?

Does it matter?

Ruby spent the next fourteen years at Lion Country Safari where she bore a calf. When the Safari went under she was sold to Circus Vargas. Her baby calf, however, didn't go with her. At four years old he was sold to a breeding farm. The mother-calf bond was broken.

How did that make her feel?

Did she suffer?

Does it matter?

Her calf died, under unknown circumstances, when he was ten years old. Ruby, mainly in chains now, was trucked around the country with the traveling circus for three years.

How did that make her feel?

Did she suffer?

Does it matter?

Ruby was sold to the L.A. Zoo in 1987 where she would remain in servitude for the next 16 years in an exhibit inadequate for elephants that normally walk thirty miles a day in the wild.

How did that make her feel?

Did she suffer?

Does it matter?

In May of 2003, in the middle of the night, Ruby was shipped to the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee, separated from the only friend she had ever known, Gita, whom she had been with for 16 years.

How did that make her feel?

Did she suffer?

Does it matter?

For more than a year now Ruby exists at the Knoxville Zoo in a small enclosure standing on concrete, which has proven to be highly injurious to elephant's feet and joints, swaying back and forth hours at a time. Nineteen hours of the day she resides in a barn while experts debate her fate.

How does that make her feel?

Is she suffering?

Does it matter?

I say to you that it does matter. It doesn't take a crazed animal rights activist like myself to know that allowing Ruby's continued abuse diminishes us all. She has paid her dues. For forty years she has been exploited by man who have profited from her suffering. It's time to let her live out the balance of her years in peace and tranquility where she can walk in a sanctuary of 2,500 acres, four hours away from the Knoxville Zoo.

Jeremy Bentham said of animals, "The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But can they suffer?"

Zoo Commissioners, I ask you to speak up for Ruby, to give voice to your compassion.

Zoo Director Lewis, do only what is best for Ruby. She has suffered long enough. Let her be free. Free from the misery of her life.