This is what Billy does 80% of the time. Every day.
Voice For The Animals' "Captivity is Not Conservation" campaign is devoted to educating people about the plight of zoo elephants. For example, Billy is a male Asian elephant at the L.A. Zoo. Billy was born in Malaysia, but, at just four years of age, he was forcibly taken from his family and his home and imprisoned in the L.A. Zoo.
The L.A. Zoo, along with many other zoos across the country, claim that practices such as this are necessary to protect global elephant populations; however, zoo elephants live miserable lives. Their existence is unnaturally solitary, and they are confined to the small spaces afforded by their enclosures. In contrast, wild elephants thrive in rich family structures, ranges that are hundreds of miles, and they can walk up to 14 miles in a day!
Confinement effects elephants both physically and psychologically. Wild elephants live upwards of 80 years, while zoo elephants often die before reaching 20 years of age. The reasons for zoo elephants' premature deaths range from foot infections cause by walking on cement or the hard, compacted soil of their tiny enclosures to the psychological effects, such as stereotypic behavior, or incessant head bobbing and rocking back and forth of living in such a small space. Rather than preventing extinction, living in zoos kills elephants.
CAPTIVITY IS NOT CONSERVATION
Meet Billy Billy was born in Malaysia but was forcibly taken from his birthplace and traded to the L.A. Zoo! He has been living in the L.A. Zoo for 32 years now, and he has been displaying sterotypic behavior for a long time Sign Our Petition To Get Billy To A Sanctuary
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