Freeing Billy Doesn't Mean He'll be Free, Says Zoo's Friends


Photo by Anikia Malone via Flickr

Brenda Scott Royce, the director of publications for the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association who has written in defense of the zoo that wants to keep building their controversial pachyderm forest, has come out again on the Huffington Post against the activists clad in their "Free Billy" t-shirts.

"[They] wearing 'Free Billy' T-shirts and stickers aren't actually calling for his return to the wild. No one is advocating unlocking the zoo's gates and allowing the massive pachyderm to roam freely in Griffith Park. Nor are they suggesting he be airlifted to Malaysia, the country of his birth, and dropped off in what little remains there of the wild," she points out.

The activists want to send Billy to an animal sanctuary, which Royce says doesn't have to be accredited, has fewer resources and is held up to lower standards than accredited zoos like the LA Zoo. But what's to say that Los Angeles can't make a large sanctuary-like zoo that is accredited?

Email This Entry


Comments (2) [rss]

But what's to say that Los Angeles can't make a large sanctuary-like zoo that is accredited?

I suppose the city could make such a thing providing it has and is willing to spend the millions and millions of dollars and the years and years that would be required to plan it, build it, and staff it.

Send Billy to San Diego Wild Animal park where he'll be happy and far less neurotic. He needs space and the socialization all elephants require. He won't get that here in L.A. any time soon....if at all.

He needs to be among his own with room to be an elephant.

Post a comment (Comment Policy)

Tips

About LAist

LAist is a website about Los Angeles. More

Editor: Zach Behrens Co-Editor: Lindsay William-Ross Publisher: Gothamist

Contribute

Latest Tip:

Los Angeles Choreographer / Dance Teacher Michael Cornell is offering all new students a complimenta
[more]

Latest Photo:

Subscribe

Use an RSS reader to stay up to date with the latest news and posts from LAist.

All Our RSS

Links