Los Angeles Zoo

Billy
Male Asian elephant
Born ~1985; 20 years old
At L.A. Zoo since 1989 (16 years)

Billy was caught in the wild and forcibly taken from his native home of Malaysia, as part of a trade between the L.A. Zoo and the Malaysian Game Department. Billy lives on approximately one-quarter acre at L.A. Zoo. In the wild, elephants can walk 30 miles in a day. There are roughly 640 acres in one mile.

With no other elephants near him, Billy lives an unnatural, solitary life at the Zoo. While male elephants are often kept separate from other elephants in zoos, in the wild males can display social connections, residing in bachelor herds or frequenting areas with female elephants, sometimes moving from family to family. In India, younger bulls join with older bulls to crop raid.

For many years Billy has been displaying stereotypic behavior in the form of repetitive head bobbing that goes on for extended periods of time. Stereotypic behavior is often viewed as an indicator of poor welfare, caused by factors such as restriction of movement, size of enclosure, social isolation, and lack of complexity in the physical environment. Billy has experienced all of these factors at the L.A. Zoo. In fact, Billy was routinely chained each night, likely from the time of his arrival at L.A. Zoo in 1989 until 1994, for approximately 12 to 14 hours each night. It was during this period that a keeper reportedly physically abused Billy by using electric shock on him.

Experts state that stereotypic behavior can lead to foot problems such as nail cracks (which Billy already has), abscesses and abrasions to the sole of the foot. Foot-related problems are one of the leading causes of euthanasia in captive elephants in the United States.

Gita
Female Asian elephant
Born ~1958; Died from captivity-related causes in 2006 at age 48 
Lived at L.A. Zoo since 1959 (47 years) 

Gita was taken from her family in India specifically to be exhibited at the L.A. Zoo, and spent her life confined to small exhibits. During the last years of her life, Gita occupied half of an approximately 6200 square foot off-exhibit area with Ruby - giving Gita a little more than five percent of an acre. In the wild elephants can travel up tens of miles per day; there are roughly 640 acres in just one mile. 

According to former zoo personnel, Gita and the other elephants were kept in chains for 12 to 14 hours overnight, a practice that lasted for years. Before her untimely death, Gita's body showed the results of her being forced to stand on hard surfaces in cramped quarters, and the years of being chained. She suffered for decades from chronic foot infections and arthritis - the two leading causes of euthanasia in captive elephants in the U.S. - as detailed below. 

Gita suffered from painful, chronic foot abscesses in the nails and soles of the feet since at least 1976. Many of Gita’s abscesses appeared on more than one toe and often on more than one foot. Through the years Gita suffered continuously from this condition accompanied by lameness. Arthritis was first recorded in 1985 and persisted throughout the remainder of her life. 

Gita was treated with pain killers and anti-inflammatory drugs for years. A July 6, 1997 Los Angeles Times article reported that Gita was receiving a 3,000 milligram dose of Adequan once a month for her arthritis, at a cost of $150, administered with a "very long needle." Other drugs include the NSAIDs Banamine and Phenylbutazone, the latter of which was administered both for arthritis as well as "acute pain" from the constant cutting away at Gita's abscessed feet. 

Medical history excerpts: "8/7/77: Rt. Rear sole appears to be nearly completely underun (sic) by abscess…" 
"11/9/78: Curetted left fore and right fore foot -- blacked areas extending from open abscess (foot rot) areas back into nail." 
"1/9/89 and 1/11/89: Unwilling &/or unable to raise trunk above horizontal…Showers of microemboli from the abscessed foot to the central nervous system are a possibility." 
"11/28/89: (L) rear lameness - drags foot…Same syndrome as seen in September..." 
"2/9/91: …very sore on both front legs today. Hesitates to walk on either front leg..." 
"7/24/91: ...All toes on left lateral forelimb were opened for drainage..." 
"5/16/04: AK trimmed almost entire nail wall off, leaving only the growth bed..."

Ruby
Female African elephant
Born ~1961; 44 years old
Arrived at L.A. Zoo in 1987 and lived there until 2003 (16 years); transferred to Knoxville Zoo, Tennessee, in 2003 and then returned to L.A. Zoo in November 2004

Ruby has known nothing but separation, loss, and grief in captivity, first being forcibly taken from her home country of Africa and then shuttled between an animal park, the circus and zoos.

Ruby was taken from her mother and herd to be sold for pubic display. She was exhibited at the now-defunct Lion Country Safari in Orange County, Calif., where she gave birth to a male calf in 1980. When Lion Country Safari closed, Ruby and her baby were sold to Circus Vargas (1983), where they were forcibly separated from one another. In the wild, Ruby's calf would have remained with her until 14 years of age. (Ruby's son died of "unknown means" at age 14, one year after being transferred to Scott Riddle's facility.) Circus Vargas transferred Ruby to the L.A. Zoo in 1987.

Ruby suffered yet another loss in 1997 when one of her companions, Annie, reportedly died from salmonella infection, with later evidence of tuberculosis. Ruby watched her friend slowly die overnight, as Annie was left unattended and "found dead" in the morning. In a 1997 letter, then zoo director Manuel Mollinedo acknowledged the existence of emotions in elephants when he stated: "…it is not surprising that because of their nature, she [Ruby] would mourn the loss of a friend."

In May 2003, despite public outcry and a taxpayer lawsuit, L.A. Zoo trucked Ruby out in the middle of the night, sending her to the Knoxville Zoo in Tennessee and separating her from her friend of 16 years, Gita. However, Ruby never integrated into the elephant group in Knoxville, spending 18 months physically separated from the other elephants. According to an L.A. Times article (11/14/04), while in Knoxville Ruby often appeared "listless and a little angry," and L.A. Zoo director John Lewis claimed that "her behavior toward other elephants also changed."

Ruby was returned to Los Angeles in November 2004. She is now warehoused in an off-site area unavailable to public, along with Gita, though there is a fence separating the two old friends. Why the zoo has failed to re-integrate the two companions is unknown.

There is still a possibility that the L.A. Zoo will transfer Ruby to yet another zoo - which would be particularly cruel after reuniting her with long-time companion Gita.