PAWS

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RUBY MIGHT SEEM YOUNG FOR RETIREMENT, but after spending much of her life in a circus and two zoos and surviving the trauma of separation from her longtime companion, it couldn’t have come soon enough for this elephant, 46, who was given her release from the Los Angeles Zoo in May.

Ruby is spending retirement among others of her own kind in the Calaveras County town of San Andreas at ARK2000, a wildlife sanctuary owned and operated by PAWS, the Performing Animal Welfare Society.

Kim Gardner, ARK2000 membership and special events director, says Ruby is acclimating very well to her new home. “She’s making friends with Lulu, Mara and 71,” she says, explaining that the name 71 refers to the number the animal was given when she was rounded up with other elephants from Zimbabwe.

For more than 20 years, PAWS has provided a peaceful environment for abused performing animals and those that have suffered in captivity. There is Boo-boo, the bear, who used to play the role of someone’s teddy bear. The African lions, Pfeffier and Denny, who came to PAWS from Detroit, were defanged and declawed by their owners.

Gardner says more than 100 animals presently live at the nonprofit organization’s three locations.

PAWS is the creation of directors Pat Derby and Ed Stewart. A trainer who worked with TV animals, including Flipper and Lassie, Derby was disturbed by the abuse she witnessed. Stewart was working in advertising and met Derby when she was working with Lincoln Mercury to train the live cougars used in their commercials.

Derby’s passion for animals and desire for their proper treatment was infectious, and Stewart soon shared her vision. In 1984, the pair founded PAWS. They remain steadfastly hands-on. When reached by phone for this story, Derby was bathing elephants.

Attitudes toward the humane treatment of animals have evolved significantly since PAWS first came into existence, and Derby says she used to spend a lot of her time working to educate colleagues and the public. Since then, PAWS priorities have shifted. “Now,” she laughs, “we are trying to save all the elephants in the world.”

PAWS’ first home was on 30 acres in Galt. Its second sanctuary opened in 1996 on 100 acres at Rancho Seco Park, site of the former nuclear power plant.

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