Court overturns order protecting zoo elephants
Justices say taxpayers who got injunction against L.A. Zoo used wrong legal vehicle.
A court order requiring the Los Angeles Zoo to exercise its elephants on soft ground and forbidding the use of electric shock was overturned Thursday by the California Supreme Court.
In a unanimous decision, the state’s highest court said taxpayers who obtained an injunction against the L.A. Zoo used the wrong legal vehicle to obtain results.
The highly technical ruling said that a taxpayer lawsuit, which relies on rules of civil law, cannot be used to stop criminal conduct. The suit that led to the injunction against the zoo accused it of violating a criminal law against animal cruelty.
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge issued the injunction in 2012, ordering the zoo to exercise its three Asian elephants at least two hours a day on rototilled soil to reduce the impact on their legs and pads.
The injunction also banned the use of electric shock and a barbed stick known as a bull hook — disciplinary tools the zoo said it wasn’t using then and will not use now.
David B. Casselman, a Tarzana lawyer who worked on the case for more than five years without charge, said he would return to trial court to see if there is another way to obtain a similar injunction or ask the Legislature to overturn the ruling.
Casselman said the injunction was necessary to ensure the zoo cared for its elephants properly.
“This is heartbreaking,” he said. “I thought we had done something here to move the ball forward, and instead the Supreme Court has allowed the zoo to take a step into the dark ages.”
John Lewis, director of the L.A. Zoo, said the judge’s order would continue to be followed, even though it was no longer legally enforceable.
The elephants are Billy, 32, and Tina and Jewel, who are in their early 50s, Lewis said. The average lifespan for an elephant in the wild or at a zoo is 45 years.
California passed a law last year banning the use of bull hooks on captive elephants. The measure was modeled after ordinances in Los Angeles and Oakland.
In issuing the 2012 injunction, former Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John L. Segal said the L.A. Zoo was “not a happy place for elephants.”