LILY TOMLIN - TOMLIN PICKS A NEW ELEPHANT FIGHT

TOMLIN PICKS A NEW ELEPHANT FIGHT

Actress LILY TOMLIN is leading a new crusade to halt a $42 million (GBP28 million) elephant enclosure at Los Angeles Zoo.
The 9 To 5 star has joined with California animal rights activists in an effort to force zoo bosses to save the bulk of the cash and use some of it to relocate their longtime bull elephant, Billy, to a wildlife sanctuary.
Tomlin, who previously fought successfully to relocate another L.A. Zoo elephant, called Ruby, says, "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."
Tomlin claims bosses at a sanctuary in Northern California, called PAWS, are keen to adopt Billy - and that's where the elephant should go.
The actress, who is also fighting to relocate a female elephant at Dallas Zoo in Texas, is calling on all Los Angeles animal lovers to write to their city officials in the hope of halting the new elephant enclosure plans and relocating Billy..