Zoo Officials Say It's Best for Billy to Stay
Sunday, Jan 11, 2009 | Updated 6:30 AM PST
The Los Angeles Zoo's elephant keepers called a news conference Sunday to press for completion of a new elephant enclosure that they call "cutting edge" and important to the lone pachyderm at the zoo, Billy.
"Our jobs are not at stake here," zookeeper Vicky Guarnett said. The 14-year zoo veteran said she and her coworkers love their charges.
"We'd urge that Billy be sent away right now if we believed it was best for Billy," she said. "It's not."
A loose coalition of animal rights advocates have convinced the Los Angeles City Council to tentatively wave off completion of a new enclosure for pachyderms.
But the animal keepers said the "Pachyderm Forest" enclosure would be good for the elephant, who has been at the L.A. Zoo since 1994. Los Angeles voters approved building the facility with a 79 percent yes vote at a bond election.
They are backed by city employee unions and such animal rights activists as Betty White and Jack Hannah. Supporters plan a week's worth of pro-zoo activities leading up to Friday's city council meeting, when a final decision on the "Pachyderm Forest" project is scheduled.
