California Supreme Court Delivers Blow To Los Angeles Zoo
- Thursday, December 17, 2009, 16:42
- Elephants in Zoos, In the News
- 620 views
Taxpayer Lawsuit To Stop Controversial Elephant Exhibit Will Proceed
Los Angeles, Calif. (December 17, 2009) - In Defense of Animals (IDA) is applauding today's California Supreme Court decision that assures a taxpayer lawsuit against the Los Angeles Zoo and its controversial $42 million elephant exhibit will go back to court for a full trial.
The California Supreme Court denied a City of Los Angeles petition asking for review of an Appellate Court decision on the suit, which seeks to stop the display of elephants at the zoo. The Appellate Court had reversed in full an earlier Superior Court dismissal of the suit. The City filed the petition November, in an attempt to prevent the lawsuit from going to trial.
By its decision, the California Supreme Court upholds the Appellate Court decision in which the justices concluded, in part, that the "physical characteristics" of an elephant's enclosure may constitute "abusive behavior" under California state law.
"The California Supreme Court decision rightly allows the taxpayers of Los Angeles to have their day in court," said IDA campaign director Catherine Doyle. "It’s wrong for the City of Los Angeles to waste public money on an inadequate elephant display that we can't afford and in which elephants will continue to suffer and die prematurely."
Attorney David Casselman filed the suit in 2007 on behalf of actor Robert Culp and real estate agent Aaron Leider. It alleges ongoing illegal, damaging and wasteful actions by the zoo, including construction of an exhibit that will not provide the large spaces elephants need to maintain health, perpetuation of captivity-caused foot disease and arthritis that kill elephants prematurely, and abusive handling practices.
Construction on the 3.5-acre elephant display resumed after a Los Angeles City Council vote in January. Since then, the zoo has twice returned to the City Council for funds needed to cover cost overruns in excess of $1 million.
The zoo holds one male Asian elephant, Billy, at a cost to taxpayers of $156,000 annually. The new exhibit will hold up to 11 elephants.
For more information, please visit helpelephants.com.
Contacts:
Catherine Doyle, 323-301-5370, zoos@idausa.org
IN DEFENSE OF ANIMALS • 3010 KERNER BLVD. • SAN RAFAEL, CA 94901 • 415-448-0048
2 Comments on “California Supreme Court Delivers Blow To Los Angeles Zoo”
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Thank you for pressing on with this issue, America is finally coming out of the dark ages in it’s treatment and abuse of animals, and it’s about time! This is why there is so much action against zoos and circus’s, animals are abused and neglected to the point of insanity and death. We don’t have this right, just so we can take our children for entertainment purposes, we just don’t have that right. Teach the children compassion, not apathy.
THANK YOU IDA!
FINALLY!! I hope it’s truly an awakening and not just the ‘financial crisis’ thats affecting this country.
I can now remember my zoo visits in a different light, seeing how they existed inside their enclosures as opposed to living free in their wild lands, whereas I believed it was conservation, not stealing then enslaving.
Thank you IDA for you continued push forward on meaningful animal rights issues, you are one of the best out there!