Yes, parents take their children to the zoo to show them all the beautiful animals, just like they take them to pet stores to pet the puppies. It sounds like a great idea, but it just doesn’t make sense. Why don’t they take their children to the slaughterhouse to show them where their hamburgers come from? If I sound a bit curt, it is because I am. We pick and choose the things that give us the warm and fuzzies, without any regard to the animal on the other end. WHY should an animal live its life in hell, so that we can see it or show it to our children. Is THAT social responsibility to enslave one animal to benefit us? Are we so ignorant? Tigers, lions, sea animals and YES elephants suffer tremendously in captivity. Elephants are wandering creatures covering hundreds of miles in their journeys, yet we lock them up in concrete cages, depriving them of their natural instincts and desires. We do not allow them to wander or live in families or groups. We deprive them their basic needs so our entertainment needs can be met. As guardians over the animals we should strive for humanity. Only a person of ignorance would disagree that it is cruel to deprive an animal its basic needs in order to entertain us.
Lets take some responsibility and make the right choice. Billy is an elephant at the LA Zoo. There is currently a motion in LA to permanently close the LA Zoo’s Elephant exhibit and take Billy to a sanctuary where he can live out his life in happiness, not torture.
This has got to be one of the saddest stories I can imagine. Please contact Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at [email protected] or call 213-978-0600 and speak up for Billy, a prisoner who has committed no crime. Close the elephant exhibit and save the $40MILLION expansion that would NOT provide the necessities elephants need. Do not allow them to filter in another elephant after Billy dies to show our kids how elephants live a tortured life in captivity. Billy is LA’s last living elephant. He lives alone at the Zoo. He is denied companionship. All the other elephants have either died or been transferred. Imagine, just for a moment the isolation and loneliness an animal faces being the only one of its species. This is especially cruel done to an animal that travels and lives in large groups. Imagine a person living among rats or giraffes. No other humans to interact with. Anyone would agree that this is wrong.
If you want your children to understand how elephants live, turn on Animal Planet and let them see how elephants are supposed to live…. In The Wild. Save the city $40million and do the compassionate thing.