L.A. Zoo Elephant Set to Go to Sanctuary Tomorrow

Second elephant sent from zoo to sanctuary this month

Los Angeles, Calif.—Tomorrow, Ruby, a 46-year-old African elephant will make an historic journey from her less than one-acre enclosure at L.A. Zoo to her new home at the PAWS Sanctuary in Northern California, where she will live on more than 70 acres of rolling, grassy hills. Her transfer is part of a larger national trend toward re-examining the ethics of keeping earth’s largest land mammal under intense confinement in cramped urban zoos.

Ruby is the second zoo elephant this month to be transferred from a zoo to a sanctuary. More than a dozen U.S. zoos, including Bronx Zoo and those in Detroit and San Francisco, have either closed or decided to phase out their elephant displays, an acknowledgement of the difficulty of meeting the vast physical and social needs of elephants in a zoo setting.

“Ruby’s new home will be over 500 times larger than her zoo pen. Her transfer is a clear acknowledgement that elephants require significantly more space and better conditions than current zoo enclosures provide,” said Elliot M. Katz, DVM, president of the international animal advocacy organization In Defense of Animals (IDA).

Advocates and citizens – including TV game show host Bob Barker – pressed for the move, with Barker pledging $300,000 in matching funds to support Ruby’s transfer and care at the sanctuary.

Ruby became a national symbol for the plight of elephants in zoos when, in 2003, the L.A. Zoo separated her from Gita, her companion of 16 years, and sent her to a Knoxville, Tenn. zoo. She was returned a year later after failing to integrate with other elephants in Knoxville. She has been kept off-exhibit since that time, and has been alone since Gita died in June, 2006.

In the wild, elephants walk up to ten miles or more each day. Zoo elephants live a sedentary life in tiny artificial exhibits (commonly a few acres or less), standing on concrete and hard-packed dirt. Zoo conditions lead to painful foot and joint disorders, obesity, reproductive problems, and abnormal behaviors such as aggression and intensely repetitive swaying and rocking.

An IDA survey of 35 zoos found that 62 percent of elephants in zoos suffer from foot disorders and 42 percent suffer joint problems.

Responding to public controversy, some zoos, including Los Angeles, are spending millions of dollars on token expansions of their elephant exhibits, but these expansions are not sufficient to meet the needs of this intelligent and wide-ranging species.

For more information, please visit www.HelpElephants.com.