This week there’s been some disturbing stories in the news about zoos considering evicting some of their residents. In particular, the Los Angeles Zoo might evict it’s only elephant, Billy, and the Berlin Zoo is considering ousting what only two years ago was its superstar attraction, Knut the polar bear.
Bye Bye Billy?
Poor Billy is the center of one heck of a controversy and he doesn’t even know it.
It all started when the Los Angeles Zoo started construction on a new enclosure for Billy. Nay, it was to be more than an “enclosure.” It was going to be the zoo’s new “Pachyderm Forest” and would have allowed the zoo to provide Billy with some company.
But with a price tag of $42 million, plus animal rights activists suing the zoo for providing inadequate care and living arrangements for elephants, suddenly the project found itself being squashed. (The price tag mattered because apparently the city’s taxes were being used to help fund the project. With the city’s failing economy and certain other services going to suffer because of money being allocated to the pachyderm project, it drew a lot of outrage.)
The animal rights activists contended Billy should be “retired” from the zoo. At least 12 elephants have died in the zoo’s care since 1968. They suffer emotional and physical trauma due to lack of adequate surroundings. They felt he’d be better off in a 60 acre elephant sanctuary somewhere in California where he could roam at will and socialize with other elephants.
They managed to convince a court of this, and now it looks like Billy will go stay in this sanctuary.
Trouble is, it doesn’t exist yet. So for now Billy is worse off than he was before. He was moved to a temporary enclosure while the “Pachyderm Forest” project got underway. But now it’s halted, and there’s no sanctuary to transfer him to.
Where Will Knut End Up?
Then there’s poor Knut. He brought in millions for the Berlin zoo when he was a cute little baby polar bear cub.
Well, two years later he’s pretty much grown up and not so cute anymore. He’s not all white. He’s grouchy. And he doesn’t have a lot of room to roam either. He’s also lonely as he’s the only polar bear in the zoo.
But the zoo doesn’t have the money to build him a bigger enclosure so they could bring him in a companion. And they don’t want to try and raise it. They’d rather ship him off elsewhere.
Which seemed so callous to me. He made them a small fortune in the beginning and even turned into a bit of a brand. Now he knows the fate of so many other child stars. Once the cuteness novelty wears off and the money stops rolling in, it’s the old “Thanks, it’s been nice, but we don’t have any use for you anymore.”
You’d think with all the news about how polar bears are facing extinction, they’d make more of an effort to help him out.
Courtney Mroch writes about animals great and small in Pets and the harmony and strife that encompasses married life in Marriage. For a full listing of her articles click here.
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