Slash Battles Lily Tomlin Over Elephant Exhibit

[Refugee 7]

Rocker Slash is going head to head with actress Lily Tomlin over an elephant battle at Los Angeles Zoo.

9 To 5 star Tomlin wants Los Angeles City Council officials to scrap a campaign to build a new Pachyderm Forest for resident elephant Billy, and instead allow the creature to retire in a California sanctuary.

But Slash is a fan of the proposed state-of-the-art new educational habitat for Billy and other endangered Asian elephants - and he's keen to support the zoo.

In a statement, the GNR and Velvet Revolver star says, "I just want everybody to try to support this cause because it's very important.

"Billy has been taken care of at the zoo for about 20 years. He has four keepers, who have been at his beck and call, taking care of him and providing him with optimal medical care and everything else that he needs."

"This enclosure is one of the nicest enclosures he could possibly have... It's really well done. It gives the elephants an amazing amount of room to move around. I'm a huge advocate of this particular exhibit."

But in a recent interview, animal lover Tomlin called on officials to halt the Pachyderm Forest project and allow the elephant to live out his days at the PAWS sanctuary in the northern California wilderness.

She said, "The habitat (at the zoo) is simply not big enough, and no habitat in a zoo is big enough for an elephant... They are mammoth and majestic and beautiful and sensitive, and, for generations, we have put elephants in zoos."

"Billy himself lives on about a quarter of an acre for more than 20 years and it's just not humane and it's not rational or responsible."

"Elephants have to walk 30 to 40 miles a day just to keep healthy and that's one of the reasons why they suffer so much in zoos and develop abscesses of the feet and terrible arthritis. They also develop great mental problems; psychologically they're depressed."

[brandonwood20 0]

Hm. Weird.

[weird monkey 0]

Gah. I say send the elephant to the sanctuary, but only because the city council could spend that money elsewhere.

On the other hand, a geriatric animal might be better served if it isn't taken away from familiar surroundings (I think if he was going to get depressed, he wouldn't wait 20 years), and stayed in a place where he could get immediate care at an age when emergencies are more likely. After 20 years he might just go bananas if faced with wide open spaces.

Hm, maybe we should leave this decision up to elephant specialists instead of celebrities.

[angelic_22 0]

^ I understand your point about letting experts make the call, but in a way both Tomlin and Slash understand what it is like to be cooped up in small places, attended to by keepers, and what it is like to be beset upon on all sides by curious onlookers who might 'love them to death' if given the chance.

So I think celebrities might have a little more insight into what that elephant feels than we would first give them credit for.

(And they all worked for peanuts at first)

I have seen both Slash and Tomlin perform. I got to see Slash by surprise when he sat in with the dirty Knobs at Cozy's about a Year ago, and saw Tomlin perform a solo show on Broadway entitled 'The Search For Intelligent Life In The Universe'. Both experiences were wonderful, but I fear that Slash may have felt uncomfortable with my photography (did anyone warn him I was shooting that night?). Those photos have led to no small controversy but that is a story for my own autobiography some day.

Edited January 16, 2009 by Relic

[emmie 2]

It's true though that elephants are amazingly sensitive animals and they really DO get depressed. I love elephants, they also bury and mourn their dead just as humans do.

[agirl 0]

^^ I've read that too, emmie. I'm with Lily.