LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, June 13, 2006: Days after Gita the elephant died at the Los Angeles Zoo, animal rights activists Tuesday repeated their call for the mayor and City Council to abandon plans for a 3.5-acre, US$40 million elephant exhibit. They arranged for a Hindu priest to conduct Gita’s last rites. Chris DeRose, president of Last Chance for Animals, criticized Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for backing a council decision to build the new elephant exhibit, which will now house the zoo’s two remaining pachyderms, Ruby and Billy. “Gita is dead because the mayor did not have the strength and conviction to make a compassionate and intelligent decision for the elephants and the people of Los Angeles,” DeRose said. Villaraigosa’s office did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Activists say Gita died Saturday morning as a direct result of being kept in inadequate conditions at the zoo. Zoo officials, who are now awaiting the results of a necropsy, believe Gita’s death resulted from the crushing weight of her frame, which sent a flood of toxins into her bloodstream. Gita suffered from chronic foot problems and arthritis — the two leading causes of death in captive elephants. Gita had foot surgery last year, but was believed to have been fully healed.
Animal rights activists and members of the Los Angeles Indian community will hold a memorial service for Gita on Tuesday afternoon. A Hindu priest will officiate over the services for the 48-year-old Indian elephant outside the Los Angeles Zoo. “We are honored to be joined by a priest from the Hindu Temple in Malibu in remembering Gita, not as a zoo specimen, but as an individual with a history, a family and a homeland,” said Catherine Doyle of In Defense of Animals. “She suffered immensely in the zoo and her premature death will not be in vain.” Activists say elephants live to be 70 years old in the wild. But zoo officials said elephants in captivity generally live to be about 42, making Gita an older elephant.