The elephant researcher stood in the living room of the sleekly modern Pacific Palisades home perched high on a hill. Slides of an African preserve flashed by on a screen.
Elephants "are so social, so communicative, so intelligent," said Joyce Poole, who has dedicated her life to documenting and protecting pachyderms.
It is a task that takes money, and the admiring audience was ready to help.
"I'd like to put up $25,000," businessman Gil Michaels said. His condition: The rest of the room had to match that amount in total donations.
There were a few small offers, then a long pause. The hostess, standing in the back of her living room, filled the void.
"I'll match the rest of his donation," Patty Shenker said.
The living room erupted in applause. The elephant researcher burst into tears.
"You don't know how hard it is to raise money," she said.
Poole had tapped into a cadre of Los Angeles residents with deep pockets and an equally deep, unabashed concern for animals. Across the area, in hilltop homes and elegant hotels, people open their checkbooks to protect a vast array of creatures -- cows and chickens, elephants and marine mammals, feral cats and pit bulls.
It is difficult to quantify the amount of money given in Los Angeles -- or nationwide -- to the myriad animal welfare and conservation causes. Philanthropy watchers said Americans gave $295 billion in cash donations to U.S. charities last year. About 2% of all giving goes to animal causes, estimates Merritt Clifton, editor of the Animal People newspaper and the annual Watchdog Report on Animal Protection Charities.
In the last 12 months, well-moneyed Angelenos have raised millions for animals at a series of parties and dinners where fine wine, vegan nibbles and, sometimes, cocktail attire are the order of the day.
Michaels spent more than $50,000 in September at a gala for Farm Sanctuary, which investigates and works to stop cruelty toward animals in factory farms and runs two sanctuaries.
"I've been doing this for 25 years," he said. "I've been fighting animal cruelty in all its disgusting forms."
Michaels estimates that he has donated more than $30 million to animal-related causes over the years.
"Animals have no voice," said Michaels, who lives in the Hollywood Hills with two dogs and stables horses in Ventura County. "They are helpless."
