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How's this for timely? GLAZA, the friends-of group to the LA Zoo, announced late last night that they'll pay the $1.2 million annual debt service for the exhibit. Basically, that relieves the city's general fund of this debt and will allow construction to continue, they say. This comes right before the City Council will sit down today and possibly vote on the fate of the controversial elephant exhibit.
One side of the issue says the lone pachyderm--Billy--has pathological problems and should be put in large swath of land that would be the LA Elephant Sanctuary. The other side says the exhibit, which is already almost $10 million into construction, is just fine.
Today's council meeting is expected to be extremely crowded with lots of emotions being flung about. Elephants are a great cause and all, but it would be nice if this sort of public passion and participation would happen when others with pathological problems are brought up for discussion. Say, homeless on Skid Row?
Photo by Heather on the go! via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr
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"Elephants are a great cause and all, but it would be nice if this sort of public passion and participation would happen when others with pathological problems are brought up for discussion. Say, homeless on Skid Row?"
Cheers to that. I'm all for animals being treated fairly but sometimes you'd swear that more money and attention goes to that than fellow humans. Why is that?
Prop 2 wins
Prop 8 loses
Just another example?
I woke up this morning thinking about LAUSD. Why were people up in arms about Mayor Villaraigosa taking over the schools, but not David Brewer, who had VERY little education administration experience?
Why is it that whenever something is set in motion to try and protect animals, it turns into a reason to complain about why no one does this or that for people instead? It's a separate issue... the animals have no choice and no say in the matter.
People on Skid Row need help, as do these elephants in question. Protecting elephants has nothing to do with the messed up conditions on Skid Row or the homelessness problem in general, and the passing of Prop 2 has nothing to do with the passing of Prop 8. Prop 8 is bullshit and should be overturned... this does not mean that Prop 2 shouldn't have gone through in order to improve the deplorable conditions in factory farms (and in turn the food supply), and it does not mean that people can't give a shit about more than one thing (or more than one species) at a time.
There are a thousands of good causes for people out there to go and get all passionate about, and we can't all be passionate about every single one of them. I applaud those who are going out of their way to ensure the safety and well-being of these elephants just as much as I do the people who take the time to help out and improve conditions on Skid Row. The two issues are totally separate and mutally exclusive of one another.
You are right, Foodeater, they are totally separate issues.
Although it appeared that Prop 2 was going to win, just as Prop 8 looked like it was, Prop 2 peeps constantly held fundraisers and were always out working it. Prop 8, in my experience, had little activism before the election.
I have more gay friends than vegan/animal friends. I have never gotten so much e-mail regarding Prop 2 from them. They worked it hard to make sure no matter what, they would win. And they won.
From my gay friends? Maybe an e-mail or two, but no asking for money, no fundraising events, no nothing.
So of course I'm going to note other issues such as homelessness. Eric Garcetti said he's never seen so much public participation in a city council meeting in his days at city hall until the elephant issue. The elephant side worked it, got organized and look where we are today--the city council is seriously considering siding with them right this moment (turn on channel 35). That's progress and success for the people who took the time to work this issue.
So kudos to them. I'm just saying, where are all the people when their issues come up? The animal people have their issue and passion, but there are others with other issues and passions. When the city does something in regards to those issues, we don't see people coming out in droves like this.
Look at today. People came out to past meetings in large numbers, spoke well, the city council heard them and now we are having a very in-depth discussion regarding the issue.
It should be a lesson to all interest groups that numbers count, participation counts and speaking to the council with respect and an educated point of view counts.
Now Bill Roshendahl just gave a classic quote about this issue and I need to write it up for a post :)
There are whole continents where elephants can (and do) live for free.
At least they are stimulating the local economy with this crazy project.
Zach, I get your point, and I agree that if more people got out and did something about Prop 8, the situation might be different today. The same can be said for any similar cause. I'm still not sure what this has to do with the elephants though.
It's frustrating that since November 4th, any time anything about animal welfare is mentioned on this site or others, the first thing that happens is that people start listing other causes that would be better served if only more people cared, and the inevitable comments are made about how "people care more about chickens than gays". Many post on this site where Prop 8 was discussed shortly after the election had statements to that effect, either in the actual article or in the comments. Just because I DO care about civil rights for gays AND for better living conditions for the homeless, I ALSO care about the rights of animals. While the first two groups can speak for and represent themselves, the animals cannot. That elephant currently at the L.A. zoo who's starting to go bonkers due to his confinement can't exactly go out and send you emails or make calls from a phone bank in order to win over public opinion to protect his wellbeing, so in my opinion it's a good thing that so many people are speaking out about this situation.
I just don't see how bringing up one problem (or in this case, one failure -passing Prop 8) while discussing a completely different one (one which people are rightfully taking the effort to do something about) is helpful. It sucks about what's happening down on Skid Row, but again that has nothing to do what what's going on at the zoo. While I agree with you that it is disturbing that not enough is being done about the homelessness problem, I don't feel that one problem which is being addressed is any less important just because it's for the welfare of animals this time around instead of for people. I mean, should we just not do anything about the conditions of confined zoo animals and just ignore all other animal welfare situations until we sort out gay marriage and homelessness first? That approach is not going to get gays legally married or people off of Skid Row any faster.