L.A. Zoo defends elephant exhibit as best bet for Billy

Los Angeles Zoo keepers Sunday appealed to city officials to complete a $42-million elephant enclosure, saying it would be the best place for Billy, the zoo’s lone remaining elephant, to breed and thrive.

The exhibit, they said, would allow for more exercise and stimulation than an animal refuge, where critics have suggested the 23-year-old Asian bull be sent.

Creation of the 3.6-acre “Pachyderm Forest” has provoked intense debate with animal welfare advocates and some City Council members, who argue that the facility is too small.

The city halted work last month to reconsider the project, although the zoo had already spent more than $12 million on construction. The City Council is scheduled to make a final decision Friday.

The keepers, with a combined 71 years of tending to elephants, said they are uniquely qualified to know what is best for Billy. They said their jobs are not at stake because they could tend to other animals if the exhibit is not completed.

In a refuge or sanctuary, a young bull would typically be separated from the female herd to mirror conditions in the wild and prevent breeding, the keepers said. At the zoo, cows could be acquired for Billy to breed with, helping to ensure preservation of his line and the species, said zookeeper Vicky Guarnett.

“We know this animal and we love this animal,” Guarnett said in an interview after the morning news conference in front of the zoo’s current elephant exhibit. “He has not fathered another elephant and to send him to a sanctuary where he would not breed would not be the best outcome.”

Also attending the conference was Catherine Doyle, an elephant welfare specialist with the nonprofit In Defense of Animals. She said the zookeepers’ plea amounted to “sentimental attachment to a particular animal.” Doyle cited elephant experts who have criticized the proposed exhibit as inadequate and recent findings that elephants in zoos have shortened life spans.

“When you strip away the PR, sentiment and politics, you see what is best is sending him back to nature, where he would have grass under his feet and be able to run and have companionship,” Doyle said after the news conference.

But zookeeper Don Aguirre said the new facility with its planned waterfalls, watering holes, mud wallows and logs would more closely replicate conditions in the wild and would allow for better public education about elephants. The keepers released a letter to the City Council and public, detailing Billy’s favorite activities: eating banana plants and oranges, splashing around in water and taking walks.

“Our lives might be easier without Billy,” according to the letter signed by more than 80 zoo employees. “We’d send Billy away right now if we believed it was best for Billy. It’s not.”

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carla.rivera@latimes.com