Los Angeles council member offers another elephant alternative

Los Angeles City Council member Tony Cardenas is doing a Jenny in Los Angeles. Joined by a number of celebrities who need some extra publicity these days (Bob Barker, Robert Culp, Esai Morales, Alicia Silverstone, but not Lily Tomlin), Mr. Cardenas said yesterday he would ask the council to ban keeping elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo. Like Dallas, the L.A. Zoo is constructing a new elephant habitat, a 3.5-acre site where the zoo hopes to house six or seven Asian elephants. Unlike Dallas, however, Cardenas is not advocating sending these elephants to a sanctuary in Tennessee or a park in Mexico. He wants the city to construct its own 50-100 acre elephant sanctuary in the San Fernando Valley.