Taxpayers Charge Zoo in Elephant Abuse Case

A lawsuit charging a municipal zoo with abusing elephants will be allowed to go to trial, after previously being blocked from superior courts.

Actor Robert Culp and real estate agent Aaron Leider brought suit against the Los Angeles Zoo, alleging mistreatment of the zoo's elephants after a three-judge panel of California's 2nd District Court of Appeal overtired a lower court's decision.

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge initially ruled that the case could not be heard because the issues it raised were political and unsuitable for a court.

Daved Casselman, attorney for the claimants asserted, "The bottom line is we're entitled to our day in court and they sent it back to trial."
Culp and Leider claim that the zoo, a city agency, violated the state's taxpayer waste statute by managing elephants in a way that abuses and injures them. According to state law, the statute allows a review of "any exercise of discretionary powers by municipal officers, if such exercise amounts to a waste or injury of the property of the municipality."

The zoo, which is in the process of building a new exhibit to house their elephant, Billy, has maintained that they dutifully care for the animal.