IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS TO MAYOR HAHN: BE A MAN OF YOUR WORD AND PUT RUBY FIRST
Animal Activists Demand Elephant Be Sent To Sanctuary

Los Angeles, CA Elephant advocates are urging L.A. Mayor James Hahn to live up to his word and make the safety and well-being of Ruby, the L.A. Zoo's 44-year-old African elephant, a priority by transferring her permanently to an accredited elephant sanctuary.

Ruby has been the center of controversy since May 2003 when she was separated from her companion of 16 years and transferred to the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee. Since Ruby's return to Los Angeles - less than 48 hours ago - the Zoo has announced it is considering again shipping Ruby off to yet another zoo.

Ruby's planned integration with other African elephants at the Knoxville Zoo failed and she was kept alone for more than a year before being trucked back to L.A. In Defense of Animals (IDA), a group that advocates for captive elephants, laid special blame for Ruby's plight on the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA), a zoo industry trade group, which sanctioned the move to Knoxville and routinely directs zoos to move elephants around the country without regard to their true physical needs and deep social bonds.

"Ruby is not a piece of furniture that can be continually shipped around the country in the back of a cramped truck," says Les Schobert, former general curator at the L.A. Zoo. "She is a highly intelligent, social individual, and repeatedly uprooting her is extremely detrimental to her health and well-being."

Schobert supports the permanent transfer of Ruby to one of two U.S. elephant sanctuaries with the space and naturalistic conditions necessary for elephants to thrive. An elephant expert with 30 years of zoo experience, Schobert says that unnatural conditions at zoos -- including lack of space, exercise and inadequate social bonding -- cause a range of health problems in elephants, from recurrent foot infections, to degenerative joint disease, digestive disorders and stereotypic behaviors indicative of psychological stress. Many elephants in zoos require a cocktail of pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory drugs to mask captivity-induced debility.

"Elephants are highly intelligent and social animals with huge physical and emotional needs," said veterinarian and IDA president Elliot Katz. "Wild elephants can travel tens of miles a day. They live in closely-knit family groups with the females staying by their mothers' sides for life. Constant movement on soft, natural surfaces is necessary for elephants' psychological and physical well-being and aids digestion, joint function and overall health."

"No zoo can provide an appropriate environment for Ruby. Because of her age, the next move will likely be her last," Katz continued. "We call on the Mayor and the City of Los Angeles to do the right thing by Ruby by sending her to a sanctuary where she can spend the remainder of her life free of stress and realizing the joys of roaming with other African elephants." IDA is asking L.A. to permanently transfer Ruby either to The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, or the Performing Animal Welfare Society sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif.