Slash the eco-warrior

Velvet Revolver guitarist Slash spoke out on Tuesday (January 13th) to support the completion of the Los Angeles Zoo's Pachyderm Forest, described as a "state-of-the-art new educational habitat for ... endangered Asian elephants," including an elephant named Billy who has lived at the zoo for 20 years. Slash is urging the Los Angeles City Council to finish the facility, saying in a press statement, "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."

Slash recently visited the zoo with his family and toured the site of the planned habitat. A native of Southern California, he says he gained an appreciation of animal life from visting the Los Angeles Zoo as a child.

Slash himself became well-known during his days with Guns N' Roses as the owner of numerous snakes, although he told us he had to dial it down when he became a father: [ Click to listen if you have a backstage pass] "I used to have a plethora of snakes, but I only have one now. We got rid of everything right before my first son was born because you have 80 life-threatening snakes around and a baby, you know, who's going to grow up to be a toddler that's gonna get into everything. It just seemed like, you know, I got sort of cold feet about the whole thing."

One animal keeper at the zoo, 25-year-old Karen Poly, said she's "always been impressed with Slash's knowledge of animals. In many cases, he is even able to identify the different subspecies, something that most people can't do."

Although voters overwhelmingly approved two bond measures to supply funds for the project, a small group of activists is pressuring the City Council to halt the Pachyderm Forest one-third into construction and ship Billy to a more exclusive habitat hundreds of miles away from Los Angeles.