Activists Ask Jeopardy! Game Show Host Alex Trebec:
“What is wrong with keeping elephants at the L.A. Zoo?”
Answer Is: Elephants Suffering Captivity-Induced Health Problems and Premature Death

Los Angeles- On the heels of the first-ever release of medical records indicating the life-threatening physical condition of 47-year-old Gita, one of three elephants suffering at L.A. Zoo, activists will greet television game show host Alex Trebec and zoo guests to highlight the jeopardy elephants are in at the Zoo.

When: Saturday, March 19th, 8:45 a.m.
Where: Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park at main entrance 

The likelihood of another elephant death at L.A. Zoo looms. Gita’s medical records indicate the severity of her foot and joint problems, the direct result of lack of space and movement. According to official policy documents from the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) accredited Dallas Zoo, “Foot disease has been identified as a major source of morbidity and mortality in captive elephants.”

The L.A. Zoo’s spate of twelve elephant deaths since 1975 reinforces the fact that this zoo, like most urban zoos, is incapable of providing the vast acreage necessary to accommodate elephants’ need to move over varied terrains, which is essential for their physical well-being. Elephants in zoos spend their time inactive in tiny enclosures, standing on concrete or hard compacted dirt which leads to extremely painful degenerative joint disorders and recurrent foot infections, as well as digestive and reproductive problems. As the world’s largest land mammal, elephants are designed for almost constant movement, and wild elephant herds can easily travel tens of miles a day on soft soil and varied terrains. 

The simple answer to the growing national debate surrounding elephants held captive in zoo is to send the elephants to one of two humane facilities. Two sanctuaries in the U.S., The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee and the Performing Animal Welfare Society in California, provide elephants with access to hundreds of acres where they can forage for food, take mud baths, and form lasting bonds with other elephants, conditions vital to their good physical and psychological health. These therapeutic naturalistic environs can help heal elephants’ painful captivity-induced foot and joint conditions.

“Foot disease, which can be deadly for elephants, is directly attributable to zoo conditions such as hard concrete floors, compacted soil, and lack of space,” says Les Schobert, former L.A. Zoo curator. “As long as the elephants languish at the zoo, their lives are in jeopardy.” 

Please visit SaveZooElephants.com for more information.