Gita's death prompted dozs of animal rights activists, including In Defse of Animals, to accuse the zoo of neglecting and dangering its animals by placing them in unsatisfactory living conditions, and fueled a years-long debate in the city governmt over the ethics of keeping elephants in a zoo at all.
Gita came to the Los Angeles Zoo from India in 1959. She was the most placid of the zoo's elephants, and was tak on a walkabout around the zoo each morning before it oped.
She led the procession of elephants across Griffith Park in 1966 wh the zoo moved from its original Griffith Park location to its prest one.
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And underwt an operation in September 2005 to remove an infected bone from one of her toes. She was fitted with a specially-made shoe at the time.
A zoo worker reportedly saw Gita "in distress" on the night of June 9, but didn't report it to staff. Two keepers discovered her the following morning and tried to save her, without success. The night keeper who failed to report her in distress later resigned.
According to In Defse of Animals, Gita had collapsed and was unable to arise for as long as 17 hours before she finally died.
Los Angeles, California
On June 11, the day after Gita's death, two doz animal rights activists protested at the zoo's gates, calling on the zoo to move its remaining two elephants, Ruby and Billy, to a more spacious animal sanctuary.
Activists and members of the Los Angeles Indian community held a memorial service for Gita on June 14. A Hindu priest from Malibu officiated at the ceremony.
A USDA investigation into the deaths of Gita and a chimpanzee named Judeo cited the Los Angeles Zoo for violations and imposed a fine of $3, 281. The zoo paid the fine in January 2008, but its signing of the agreemt did not admit culpability for the violations. According to the agreemt, the zoo "failed to assure an elephant received veterinary care in adequate time. Elephant Gita was found in an awkward position around 9 p.m., and veterinarians were not alerted to Gita's condition until around 5 a.m. the next day".
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A necropsy reported blockages in the right chamber and major vessels of the elephant's heart, citing the cause of death as heart failure brought on by blood clots which had begun forming 3 to 5 days before death. The study could not determine whether inatttion to Gita's heart condition contributed to her death.
Gita is either the 12th or the 14th elephant to die at the Los Angeles Zoo since 1968. There have be only four elephant deaths since 1992, wh the zoo changed its policy of keeping elephants all night in barns with concrete floors and instead provided dirt yards that are easier on their feet. According to John Lewis, zoo director, "Despite how we took care of them, we're paying the price for how they were treated in their earlier lives — no exercise, being kept on concrete."
In response to the deaths of Gita and other elephants at the L.A. Zoo, public opposition to the keeping of elephants on zoo grounds continued for the next 2
Asian Elephant, Facts And Information
In January 2009, the Los Angeles City Council held a final vote approving plans to create a $42 million, six-acre elephant sanctuary at the L.A. Zoo called Pachyderm Forest.
They were supported by celebrities who also appeared before the city council, including Cher, Lily Tomlin and Robert Culp. Former game show host Bob Barker had earlier offered to pay $1.5 million to move the zoo's last elephant, Billy, to the northern California sanctuary.Copyright © 2023, Los Angeles Times | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | CA Notice of Collection | Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
Billy, an Asian elephant who has lived at the Los Angeles Zoo for more than three decades, is suffering from his time in captivity and should be moved to an elephant sanctuary, an L.A. City Council committee recommends.
Elephants Of Asia At L.a. Zoo
The Personnel, Audits, and Animal Welfare Committee on Tuesday approved a motion, proposed by Chairman Paul Koretz, that alleges several of Billy’s health issues can be linked to his zoo environment.
“For many years before the opening of the current Elephants of Asia exhibit he was placed alone in a small enclosure where he was kept on hard surfaces not considered beneficial for his feet and joints, and allegedly received a lack of sufficient exercise and stimulation, ” the motion reads. “Billy long has been exhibiting abnormal (stereotypic) behavioral patterns many elephant experts characterize as indicating detrimental mental health impacts from that environment.”
Among the “list of ways Billy’s long stay at the Zoo has been detrimental to his well-being, ” Koretz noted, were numerous attempts at collecting genetic material for captive breeding of elephants.
Los Angeles Zoo 2003
The Los Angeles Zoo said it “vehemently disagrees” with the motion’s characterization of the care and well-being of the facility’s Asian elephants.
“We have complete confidence in the knowledge, skills, and expertise of our entire animal care team, including those who care for our elephants, ” the zoo said in an email to The Times.
Director Denise Verret said the zoo would support a study on relocating Billy. The committee’s recommendations call for the council to instruct the zoo to relocate the elephant.
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“Relocating him to a sanctuary is the solution and there are indications that philanthropy may be available to underwrite it, making it cost-effective for the zoo, ” the motion read.
Christian Martinez is a Metro reporter covering breaking news at the Los Angeles Times. He previously wrote for the USA Today network of newspapers including the Ventura County Star, where he covered the Thomas and Woolsey wildfires and the Borderline mass shooting, the Spectrum & Daily News in Utah and the Lansing State Journal in Michigan. He was born and raised in Southern California and attended Saint Mary’s College of California.