ZOO LEADERS TRUMPETING DISMAY U.S. KEEPERS WATCHING ELEPHANT DEVELOPMENTS IN L.A.

Byline: Dana Bartholomew Staff Writer

There's one thing that worries zoo directors from San Diego to Syracuse as much as the growing cost of elephant care: Los Angeles.

Fulfilling a campaign promise to animal activists, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected this month to release an independent study - with input from roughly 30 zoo association experts and elephant rights proponents - that could determine the fate of a $19 million pachyderm exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo. The results could determine whether Los Angeles builds the exhibit, expands its existing quarters or follows the lead of such cities as Detroit and San Francisco and sends its elephants to a sanctuary.

If the nation's second-largest city packs off its largest animals, it would be considered a major victory for animal rights activists.

``People - zoo directors - are looking at L.A. much the same as San Francisco and Detroit,'' said American Zoo and Aquarium Association spokeswoman Jane Ballentine. ``They're waiting to see who says what and how things shake out.

``I think they are concerned with their own elephant exhibits.''

The planned exhibit, on hold pending results of the study by the City Administrative Office, is the latest battleground in the war between animal activists and animal parks.

``Without a doubt, no doubt about it, it's worrisome,'' said Mark Reed, director of the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, Kan. ``It's a bad precedent. My concern is that the (Los Angeles) community is not being asked to speak.

``We do not like it in our profession when people who don't know what they're talking about - and I don't want to degrade or talk bad about politicians - speak up about elephants when they don't know all the facts.''

The Elephants of Surin exhibit would be four times larger than current quarters for three elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo. In addition to a larger yard, elephants would share a filtered lake, wading pond and waterfall.

While zoo officials maintain the exhibit exceeds standards set by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association, critics deem it too small.

Most zoo directors argue that the Los Angeles Zoo bears an important role as part of a new mission among American zoos for elephant conservation and breeding.

Early this year, Reed led a conference of American zoo directors in Orlando, Fla., to discuss the status of elephant exhibits. The consensus: Zoos must expand exhibits for a half-dozen elephants or more and accept potentially dangerous bull elephants - or get out of caring for pachyderms altogether.

In addition, the zoo association has required that zoos comply with new standards for elephant care by early next year.

``It's not a good sign, it's not a good thing, absolutely, if L.A. canceled elephants,'' said Larry Killmar, deputy director for collections for the Zoological Society of San Diego, which runs the renowned San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park.

``The issue of whether Los Angeles has elephants or not affects the national program. As far as elephants in captivity, we need all the space we can get in order to help maintain the species.''

Mike Keele, deputy director of the Oregon Zoo in Portland, concurred.

``In the AZA, it's not like we're looking at L.A.,'' said Keele, chairman of the AZA Species Survival Program for elephants and a contributor to the L.A. elephant study. ``We are L.A.

``We want the facts to be fairly represented because we feel that animal rights groups are misleading the public.''

Animal rights groups, for their part, accuse zookeepers of bad elephant husbandry.

Melya Kaplan, a Los Angeles-based animal rights activist who has worked closely with the Mayor's Office, said she doesn't believe elephants belong in zoos and has proposed that L.A.'s elephants go to a sanctuary.

Kaplan said elephant exhibits aren't about education, as zoos contend, but money and entertainment. She also said zoos have a horrible record at keeping - as well as breeding - elephants.

She teaches private school and says her students contend they learn more about elephants on TV than at the Los Angeles Zoo.

What L.A. needs, she said, are virtual computerized exhibits - or its own elephant sanctuary in the Santa Monica Mountains.

``A preserve right here in L.A. - wouldn't that be great?'' said Kaplan, executive director of Voice for the Animals and producer of ``Elephants and Man: A Litany of Tragedy,'' a documentary critical of the Los Angeles Zoo that is expected to screen next month.

``Let's bring zoos into the 21st century, bring them into our community - it's not about closing them, it's about rethinking them.''

While zoo officials say they are constantly rethinking exhibits, they also say keeping elephants is costly.

Manuel Mollinedo left his job as general manager of the Los Angeles Zoo to direct the zoo in San Francisco. Only a few weeks after he got there, one sick elephant died. Then another.

Amid pressure from animal activists and county supervisors, Mollinedo decided to close the outdated exhibit rather than build a new one. He sent the remaining elephants to a sanctuary, where a third one died.

``What my decision boiled down to is, we didn't have the money we needed to build a new, modern exhibit that would meet the new AZA standards,'' he said. ``Hopefully, I'll be able to raise enough money to bring the elephants back to San Francisco.''

Mollinedo said he hopes Los Angeles could keep its elephants, even if it has to expand its exhibit into an adjacent golf course in Griffith Park.

``We could see the storm clouds out there - the attack on zoos, trying to isolate zoos, we knew people loved elephants,'' said Los Angeles Zoo General Manager John Lewis. ``So we asked, how can we do it right, are we doing it right?

``I'm ready to move on - I think we've got a good elephant program and do what we do best - teach people about animals.''

Anne Baker, director of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, N.Y., said she worries about potential decisions in Los Angeles made by people who may not know anything about elephants.

``There are people in this city who know more about our elephants than I do,'' said Baker, who has a doctorate in animal sociobiology. ``This is their zoo.''

Dana Bartholomew, [phone]

dana.bartholomew(at)dailynews.com