Judge Agrees With IDA, Says Los Angeles Zoo Elephants Are Not Healthy Or Happy
An exciting update from In Defense of Animals. If you appreciate the work they do, you can click through to the link to give a donation.
Tina and Jewel at the L.A. Zoo
Tina and Jewel at the L.A. Zoo
A five-year-long taxpayer lawsuit against the Los Angeles Zoo and its controversial $42 million elephant exhibit was decided Tuesday in favor of the plaintiffs. California Superior Court Judge John L. Segal released a scathing decision that called zoo officials “delusional.” He concluded that the elephants are not “healthy, happy or thriving.” The judge said the zoo’s new exhibit is injuring the three elephants who live there, Billy, Tina and Jewel, but stopped short of closing it. Instead, he ordered the zoo to make changes such as increasing exercise and rototilling to soften the soil in the exhibit, and banning bullhooks and electric shock devices.
The judge wrote: “The evidence at trial shows that life at the Los Angeles Zoo for Billy, Tina, and Jewel is empty, purposeless, boring, and occasionally painful. Their lives are supervised, managed, and controlled by zoo employees who appear to be in the dark about normal and abnormal behavior of elephants, in denial about the physical and emotional difficulties of the elephants they manage and whose lives they control, and under the misconception that the elephants prefer to live their lives in an exhibit with human companions rather than with other elephants.” Click here to read more, including what you can do to help.
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