Yesterday, a California courtroom of enchantment dominated in PETA’s favor that Monterey Zoo had failed to ascertain that its use of canes as stand-ins for bullhooks (weapons that resemble a fire poker with a pointy hook on one finish) to poke, prod, and management elephants someway arises from exercise protected by the First Modification. The ruling implies that PETA can now transfer ahead with its lawsuit alleging that the zoo has engaged in illegal enterprise practices by utilizing the canes as weapons in violation of California’s ban on bullhooks and different gadgets “designed to inflict ache for the aim of coaching or controlling the habits of an elephant.”
PETA’s go well with additionally alleges that Monterey Zoo has violated California’s employee safety legal guidelines by controlling elephants through previous, circus-style “free contact,” by which handlers share the identical unrestricted area with elephants and use domination, pressure, and punishment to make them obey. This victory additionally implies that the zoo is now not entitled to gather its attorneys’ charges and prices from PETA—as an alternative, it now has to pay our prices on enchantment.
“For years, staff at Monterey Zoo have bodily and mentally tormented elephants by utilizing weapons on them in obvious defiance of state legislation. No different zoo in California nonetheless resorts to harmful direct contact with elephants, and PETA can now proceed in its lawsuit to compel the ability to finish its use of those merciless practices.”
—PETA Basis Common Counsel Caitlin Hawks
Elephants held at Monterey Zoo have died beneath questionable circumstances, together with one who was euthanized after being unable to face because of a painful joint situation and one other whose loss of life was hidden from the general public however whose necropsy revealed that she had ingested a considerable amount of sand that blocked and ruptured her giant gut, finally inflicting blood poisoning. The power has briefly transferred Butch, the only remaining elephant it used for pricy public encounters and picture ops, to a different facility however intends to deliver him again—together with further elephants.
Urge Monterey Zoo to Shut Its Elephant Exhibit
Elephants of their pure properties roam immense habitats, cool off in mud wallows, and knock down timber and strip their bark. They dwell in close-knit households and have huge, complicated social networks. They nurture their younger and mourn their useless.
Similar to people, elephants should dwell free from exploitation, and we should reject the merciless, speciesist concept that we’re entitled to make use of them for leisure. Monterey Zoo ought to by no means gamble with one other elephant’s life or maintain elephants captive.