L.A. Zoo Records-Tampering Scandal Prompts Call For Mayor To Remove Elephants From Zoo

Los Angeles – In Defense of Animals (IDA) fired off a letter to Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa today calling for him to keep his campaign pledge to remove the elephants from L.A. Zoo. The appeal follows an exposé that revealed L.A. Zoo purposely altered the veterinary records of ailing elephant, Gita, to cover up the severity of her medical condition.

At issue is the Zoo’s deletion of information from medical records recently obtained by IDA through the California Open Records Act. The Zoo removed a veterinarian’s assessment indicating that an infection which had migrated to the bone of the 47-year-old elephant’s chronically infected feet had not been curtailed by surgery and, in fact, continues to eat away bone in her foot.

In the letter to Villaraigosa, IDA reminded him of his statement: “I have believed for some time that a zoo is not an appropriate place for an animal as large as an elephant” and his pledge to shut down the elephant exhibit and move the elephants out of L.A. Zoo. The letter also urges the mayor not to allow the Zoo to spend upwards of $40 million on a new elephant exhibit that still will not provide the space elephants need to maintain physical and psychological health and well-being.

“We can’t trust the Zoo to take proper care of the elephants when it continues to cover up the severity of Gita’s condition, even going so far as to tamper with official city records,” says IDA spokesperson Catherine Doyle. “It’s time for the Mayor to live up to his campaign promise and remove the elephants from the Zoo before another tragedy occurs,” Doyle continued, recalling the December 2004 death of 39-year old African elephant Tara who had suffered from painful arthritis due to the Zoo’s inadequate conditions.

Captivity-induced health problems are the leading cause of death in elephants in zoos, where lack of space for movement and hard, unyielding surfaces like concrete and compacted dirt cause painful and often-lethal health problems, including arthritis and chronic foot infections. Since 2000, more than half of the 40 elephants who have died at American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA)-accredited facilities never reached their 40th birthdays, dying far short of their 70-year natural lifespan.

Gita, along with African elephant Ruby, is not on display to the public. She has been warehoused for the last two and a half years in a small, “temporary” facility that a recent city report deemed “insufficient to house them over the long term.” Zoo veterinary records from 2005 indicate that conditions in the “temporary” facility have exacerbated Gita’s health problems. Medications for treatment of her arthritis and foot disease are reported to cost $8,000 per month.

Read IDA’s letter to Mayor Villaraigosa