Death of Gita 

By: The Performing Animal Welfare Society

Posted 07/12/2006 


July 4, 2006

John Lewis
Director
Los Angeles Zoo
5333 Zoo Drive

Los Angeles, CA 90027

Dear Mr. Lewis:

For the past few weeks, I have been preparing this letter with some enclosed information to clarify any misconceptions that you may have regarding PAWS, our sanctuary facilities and our programs of elephant and veterinary care. I had been informed by members of the media that you and your colleagues in AZA have been disseminating incorrect information about us, and I wanted to provide you with pertinent information to replace the deliberate equivocations which have been circulated as facts.

After reading the accounts of Gita’s death and unnecessary suffering and your perfunctory dismissal of the whole affair as a procedural glitch, I am appalled at the magnitude of your incompetence and the circumlocutory explanation. This is particularly offensive to PAWS after the arrogant and disdainful public misrepresentation of our elephant program at the
September Zoo Commission hearing, and your adamant refusal to listen to our valid concerns about Gita’s health and the welfare of Billy and Ruby.

I have worked with elephants for thirty-five years; Ed Stewart has worked with elephants for twenty-five years; PAWS maintains a staff of nine trained elephant keepers who work shifts that cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and no elephant is ever left unattended. Keepers constantly monitor the elephants, even when they are ranging all over the 100-acre habitat, and daily logs are kept on their activities.

Our veterinarian is an experienced elephant expert on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We do not tolerate “surprises”; our elephant protocol recognizes the proclivity of arthritic elephants with foot problems, particularly those who have lived in zoos for long periods of time, to collapse, and every precaution is taken to prevent tragic mishaps.

When an elephant refuses to lie down, there is a serious danger that she will eventually collapse. Once an elephant is down and struggling to get up, there is an immediate and major emergency. Leaving an elephant in that position for eight hours is unthinkable. To say it was surprising that she went down reflects the incompetence and indifference of your
administration and the elephant program.

Allowing an elephant who has been unable to lie down for years to continue to stand without developing a plan to help her is grossly negligent. At PAWS, we provide indoor pools and outdoor lakes to encourage flotation which relieves stress on joints, and all elephants have hills and indoor dirt mounds to facilitate rising from a prone position.

Gita lived at the LA Zoo all of her life. Her medical problems ( and Tarra’s) were a direct result of inept management and a substandard facility, and their deaths graphically illustrate the urgent need for change. The history of the elephant program at the zoo reflects the neglect and indifference of free contact management where bull hooks and punishment supercede empathy and compassion. The track record from Tumai and Hannibal to Gita is abysmal, and nothing has been done to improve the quality of life for the elephants; yet you have the audacity to criticize our facility.

In twenty years we have successfully raised a sickly four-year-old African elephant, who was not expected to live; unchained, moving freely on grass, grazing, browsing and socializing with other elephants, she is our proud testimonial to an elephant program that works. We have taken arthritic elephants with major foot problems and provided them with a compassionate and dignified life, and, in some cases, death; but no elephant in our care has ever been left alone and suffering.

You may express your opinion freely, but please refrain from further misleading statements about our lack of experience, veterinary care and inferior programs which can only be construed as intentionally defamatory.

If you need further information, please feel free to contact us directly. We are always happy to share information with other facilities.

Sincerely,

Pat Derby
Director
The Performing Animal Welfare Society