TEACHERS AND STUDENTS DELIVER SPECIAL VALENTINE TO L.A. ZOO
Concerned Citizens Urge Zoo to Have a Heart, Send Elephants to Sanctuary

Los Angeles - Students and teachers join other concerned citizens with a heartfelt Valentine’s Day request for L.A. Zoo officials: Send our elephants to a sanctuary now. Bearing an “elephant-sized bouquet,” L.A. residents—increasingly concerned for the well-being of 46-year-old Asian elephant Gita, whose medical records indicate she suffers from severe foot problems and arthritis—will urge L.A. Zoo officials to acknowledge the seriousness of her physical condition and immediately transfer all the zoo’s elephants to a sanctuary.

When: Saturday, February 12, 11 a.m.
Where: Los Angeles Zoo, 5333 Zoo Drive in Griffith Park, outside of main entrance 

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. Yet American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) standards allow an elephant to be held in an enclosure of 1,800 square feet —the equivalent of six parking spaces. 

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.

“As Los Angeles residents learn how detrimental lack of space is for elephants’ health, they are rallying support for Gita, Billy and Ruby and telling city officials and the mayor these majestic animals should not suffer on display,” says Les Schobert, former L.A. Zoo curator. “We hope L.A. Zoo officials will find it in their hearts this Valentine’s Day to put the elephants’ welfare before business interests.” 

Please visit savezooelephants.com for more information.