ACTIVISTS PLEAD RUBY'S CASE TO MAYOR ZOO'S AFRICAN ELEPHANT SHOULD RETIRE TO SANCTUARY, THEY SAY.Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer Free Ruby. That was the refrain Tuesday of animal welfare activists who called upon Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. to retire the city's 46-year-old elephant to a sanctuary. In two letters to the mayor, humane groups and former zoo professionals demanded Ruby be sent from "solitary confinement solitary confinement n. the placement of a prisoner in a Federal or state prison in a cell away from other prisoners, usually as a form of internal penal discipline, but occasionally to protect the convict from other prisoners or to prevent the prisoner from causing " at the Los Angeles Zoo The Los Angeles Zoo founded in 1966, is a large zoo located in Los Angeles, California, USA. The Zoo, located in Los Angeles' Griffith Park, is home to 1,200 animals from around the world. to the 150-acre PAWS PAWS Progressive Animal Welfare Society PAWS Pets Are Wonderful Support PAWS Performing Animal Welfare Society PAWS Pet Animal Welfare Statute PAWS Pets Are Worth Saving PAWS Philippine Animal Welfare Society PAWS Phased Array Warning System sanctuary in Northern California Northern California, sometimes referred to as NorCal, is the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. The region contains the San Francisco Bay Area, the state capital, Sacramento; as well as the substantial natural beauty of the redwood forests, the northern . Zoo officials are weighing whether to send Ruby to the PAWS refuge or to another zoo. Activists also appealed to zoo commissioners, who serve in an advisory capacity and have endorsed the PAWS move. "You and the mayor have a duty to care for this zoo ... you have a duty to care for the elephants," Madeline Bernstein, president of the SPCA-LA, the city's oldest animal welfare organization, told the commission. "Don't be the people who almost moved Ruby to a better place, because not doing so condemns her to a worse place." The zoo now houses two pachyderms: Ruby, an African elephant who has lived alone and out of the public eye for two years; and Billy, a 22-year-old Asian bull elephant. It is building a $39 million elephant exhibit due to open in 2009. In her letter to the mayor, Bernstein said the L.A. Zoo does not heed national zoo guidelines guidelines, n.pl a set of standards, criteria, or specifications to be used or followed in the performance of certain tasks. that call for the social behemoths to live in groups of no less than three. In addition, she said private funds have been raised to send the aging Ruby to a spacious sanctuary. "The current treatment of Ruby could be construed as cruel," she writes in the letter. In another letter, former zoo professionals from around the world asked the city to retire its oldest elephant. "She was put in solitary confinement at the Los Angeles Zoo," said Les Schobert, the zoo's former curator, who had signed the letter. "In short, she's had a horrible life ... everyone agrees that she must go." The Mayor's Office declined to comment. In December, zoo General Manager John Lewis and two curators drove to PAWS to investigate the sanctuary. Zoo officials say that, despite her confinement con·fine·ment n. 1. The act of restricting or the state of being restricted in movement. 2. Lying-in. confinement away from other elephants, Ruby is fine. "She's not with other elephants, but she has a good relationship with her keepers," said zoo spokesman Jason Jacobs. "She's in good health. She's in her 40s, she's in good shape." dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3730 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: The fate of Ruby, the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Zoo's 46-year-old African elephant, is still uncertain. Animal activists have now appealed to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to retire her to a sanctuary in Northern California. Zoo officials are weighing whether to send her to the sanctuary or to another zoo. David Sprague/Staff Photographer |
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