Billy

Billy is a wild-born male Asian elephant who has spent all but one year of his life in captivity. Born roaming freely with his familial herd in Malaysia around 1985, Billy was captured less than a year after his birth. In 1989 he was imported to the United States and brought to the Los Angeles Zoo. 

A 1989 training video shows Billy being repeatedly jabbed and led around by a bullhook, a weapon-like device that is used to control elephants through the infliction of pain. In the video, a zoo employee talks about chaining Billy and using the bullhook in various ways to exert control over him, such as touching Billy’s hypersensitive body parts. In 1993, Billy was sent to Have Trunk Will Travel, most likely for training to submit to human commands. Have Trunk Will Travel was a notorious traveling entertainment operation that had been plagued by allegations of extreme cruelty to elephants. In 1994, Billy returned to the Los Angeles Zoo where he has remained ever since. 

In 2012, a lawsuit was brought against the Los Angeles Zoo regarding its treatment of elephants, and the extent of the physical abuse Billy endured–in what the zoo referred to as “training”–was laid bare. After a trial, the presiding judge wrote: “The evidence shows that when Billy was much younger, trainers formerly with the Los Angeles Zoo trained him to lie down using a block and tackle. Trainers also used a bull hook, a stick with a nail, or other similar tool. When elephants that were trained or ‘broken’ with a bull hook are subsequently shown a bull hook or an object that looks like a bull hook, they (quite understandably) become afraid, and comply with requests by the trainer or keeper. [The Los Angeles Zoo director] confirmed that if an elephant has been hurt by a bull hook in the past, the elephant will react negatively if a keeper merely shows or displays a bull hook.”

The Los Angeles Zoo has just 3 acres of usable outdoor space for elephants, which is divided into 4 yards. For the majority of the time Billy has been confined at the zoo, he has been held alone in a barren enclosure. Captivity in such an impoverished environment causes brain damage by subjecting elephants to extreme psychological stress. For decades, Billy has been observed engaging in stereotypic behavior, most frequently intense head bobbing, which is a coping mechanism for dealing with stress. 

Billy has been forced to participate in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ captive breeding program. Public records reveal that during a three year period, the zoo attempted to collect Billy’s semen at least 55 times. The semen collection procedure was a gross violation of Billy’s autonomy, in addition to being a great risk to his health and safety. It often involved placing Billy in an elephant restraint device, rendering him unable to freely move, and having a human insert their arm into his anus and massage his prostate to stimulate ejaculation. Despite years of semen collection attempts, Billy has never sired any offspring. The most recent AZA Asian Elephant Population Analysis and Breeding & Transfer Plan recommends that Billy continue to be used for breeding purposes.

In addition to enduring traumatic trainings, long-term isolation, and grotesque semen collection procedures, Billy has also suffered from inadequate foot care–for elephants held in small captive environments, foot care is incredibly important. Foot disease is a leading cause of death in captive elephants. Records from 2023 show that the zoo did not perform regular foot care on Billy for eight months while he was in musth, resulting in overgrown nails and a significant accumulation of dead tissue.

There has been a long campaign, spanning decades, calling for Billy’s release to an elephant sanctuary where his complex physical and psychological needs can be met. Celebrities such as Bob Barker, Lily Tomlin, and Cher have championed his freedom. Over 800,000 people have signed a petition calling for his release to sanctuary. Several Los Angeles City Council members have introduced multiple motions over the years to close the zoo’s elephant exhibit or relocate Billy to a sanctuary. The Los Angeles Times’ Editorial Board wrote a powerful article advocating for Billy’s transfer to a sanctuary.

Despite the public outcry regarding Billy’s plight, zoo officials have steadfastly refused to grant him a measure of freedom that was stolen from him. They justify his captivity by claiming he plays an important role in conservation by serving as an ambassador for his species, but nothing could be further from the truth. Seeing an elephant suffering day in and day out, in an unnatural space and engaging in behaviors unseen in the wild, serves no legitimate purpose. If anything, Billy is an ambassador for why confining elephants in zoos is an archaic and shameful practice, one that future generations will rightly view with moral outrage. The judge in the 2012 lawsuit against the Los Angeles Zoo recognized as much, when he wrote: “Captivity is a terrible existence for any intelligent, self-aware species, which the undisputed evidence shows elephants are.”

Billy is not living at the Los Angeles Zoo; he is deteriorating as zoo officials look on. For once, the zoo must prioritize Billy’s interests before its own and relocate him to a sanctuary that can meet his complex needs.