Its good to see the Mayor announce the "retirement" of the only female elephant left at the LA Zoo to a santuary in San Andreas, not unlike the one Stampy goes to at the end of episode 1F15 "Bart Gets an Elephant". While this is great news for the elephant, its important to mention how much time, effort, and suffering on the part of the animal it took to get to this point. Activists, like Bob Barker, had to pledge they would help put up the money for the transfer. Llyod Levine, an LA state rep, has a bill in the State house that would mandate every zoo have at least 5 acres of land for each elephant. Anything less then that is unnatural for the animals as it causes serious joint pains. Only one zoo in the state could qualify with those standards, and it ain't LA. Levine has a very unique view explaining why he even cares:
"I've said this about elephants repeatedly — nobody has an inherent right to see an elephant in the zoo. Nobody has an inherent right to see any animal in the zoo," said Levine, who is wading into the national controversy over whether zoos are humanely keeping elephants. "It's a privilege, and with the privilege of seeing an animal in the zoo comes the responsibility of providing it care that's appropriate."
That's a good way to put it, but I worry about State. Rep. Levine. You usually don't get far telling the American people they aren't entitled to something, unless its private phone calls and habeas corpus.
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