An Entertainment Abuses Article used with permission from All-Creatures.org

In Defense of Animals reports that the director of the LA Zoo has confirmed that elephants Billy and Tina will be sent—without public or city consultation—to the overcrowded Tulsa Zoo rather than a sanctuary.

LA Zoo Director Rebuffs Call to Send Elephants to Sanctuary
From Staff, IDA In Defense of Animals, idausa.org
May 2025

Images from Canva

LOS ANGELES (May 12, 2025) — In a tense exchange at the May 8 Los Angeles City Council budget hearing, Los Angeles Zoo Director Denise Verret defied massive public outcry and calls for council discussion from Councilmember Bob Blumenfield by confirming that elephants Billy and Tina will be sent to Tulsa Zoo imminently without public or city consultation. A Los Angeles resident has now sued the zoo for misleading promotion of the Tulsa Zoo’s elephant exhibit as a ‘preserve.’

Blumenfield pressed Verret for answers about the fate of the zoo’s two elephants — exhorting the zoo to consider several free sanctuary offers instead of another zoo and called for the transfer not “to happen in an opaque way without having a discussion in some public forum.”

WATCH Council Budget Hearing: https://youtu.be/xQjoMf6a18k

Backed by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, Verret insisted the decision was hers alone and refused to provide a timeline, offering only that the elephants will be shipped as soon as they are "ready."

Verret admitted that no report from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) supports her decision, but cited the Species Survival Plan (SSP), which suggests the AZA wishes to use Billy for yet more invasive breeding procedures. Since elephants die faster in captivity than they can reproduce, zoos are desperate to breed babies who also drive ticket sales.

Councilmember Blumenfield countered that there is time for the Parks and Recreation Committee to further explore sanctuary options. In April, he introduced a motion seeking a report on relocation options, and also calling on the City Council to instruct the LA Zoo not to move the elephants until the issue has been discussed and voted on by the full council.

Courtney Scott, Elephant Consultant for In Defense of Animals said, “Tulsa Zoo is unfit for Billy and Tina — they should go to a true sanctuary instead of a fake ‘preserve.’ Tulsa Zoo was overcrowded with just three elephants in 2022, but adding Billy and Tina will make seven elephants jammed into an enclosure less than one percent the size of their natural range. It’s neither right nor fair to send Billy and Tina to another zoo at taxpayer expense when several healing, spacious sanctuaries have been offered at no cost to the city.”

The Tulsa Zoo made the 10 Worst Zoos for Elephants list in 2022 because of deceptive marketing of its new 10-acre “elephant preserve.” Adding a few more acres adds nothing to the quality of life of far-roaming elephants who can roam for up to 14 miles per day. It is cruel to keep elephants constricted to such small, barren spaces with no opportunity to roam, forage on plants and trees in a pastoral, peaceful setting, heal from their years in the zoo, and choose how they spend their days.

“In Defense of Animals, thousands of concerned citizens, elephant experts, celebrities and animal rights organizations have spent two decades calling for these elephants to be sent to a legitimate sanctuary — not another zoo,” added Scott. “This decision betrays the will of the public and the well-being of these intelligent, social beings.”

WATCH Billy and Tina’s zoochosis: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/F_kn9hKLX7A?feature=share

Activists are not giving up. They are holding weekly protests and writing and calling Mayor Karen Bass to intervene and do the right thing for the elephants. Protestors continue to hold weekly demonstrations at the zoo to voice their objection to the inhumane decision.

“It is time for the LA Zoo to heed the call and follow in the footsteps of more progressive zoos to send their elephants to sanctuary, and then close the elephant exhibit, as 38 zoos have done, including six in California, Scott continued. “Sanctuaries offer elephants not just space, but also dignity — a chance to live more freely, surrounded by nature, free from barren, constricted enclosures and the constant din of noisy zoo crowds. Billy and Tina deserve no less after decades of enforced confinement.”

Members of the public should use this form to urgently contact Mayor Bass: www.idausa.org/freebilly

---

Posted on All-Creatures.org: May 15, 2025
Return to Entertainment Abuses Articles