The decades-long controversy over the Los Angeles Zoo’s elephants is intensifying, even after officials announced that Billy and Tina will be moved to a zoo in Oklahoma where they will have more room to roam.
On Friday, an L.A. resident sued to halt the transfer of Billy and Tina to the Tulsa Zoo, arguing that they should instead be sent to an animal sanctuary.
The lawsuit, which seeks an injunction from the L.A. County Superior Court, includes a declaration from the singer Cher, who has been advocating on behalf of Billy and Tina for years.
“Billy and Tina have served their time in confinement,” Cher said in the declaration. “They deserve the chance to live out their lives in peace and dignity.”
Animal rights advocates have criticized the L.A. Zoo for decades for holding elephants in a relatively small enclosure, which they say causes serious health issues. Other celebrities who have rallied to the elephants’ cause include Lily Tomlin and the late Bob Barker.
Jewel, 61, and Shaunzi, 53, were euthanized in the last few years because of health issues that the zoo said were age-related, leaving only Billy and Tina, who live in separate enclosures in an elephant habitat of about 6.5 acres.
Zoo officials have long defended the care they provide to the elephants and did not cite any health issues in late April when they announced the transfer to the Tulsa Zoo, which recently expanded its elephant complex to include a 36,650-square-foot barn and a 10-acre wooded preserve. Billy and Tina will join five other Asian elephants there.
On Thursday before the City Council’s budget committee, L.A. Zoo Director and Chief Executive Denise Verret said she believed that Tulsa would provide “an environment where they can thrive,” citing the social benefits of living with other elephants.
The lawsuit, filed by John Kelly, an animal lover and longtime L.A. resident, names Verret as a defendant and outlines the health issues that can afflict elephants in captivity, including “zoochosis,” a mental illness caused by confinement.
Billy and Tina’s living conditions are “abysmal,” with little shade and hard-packed sand that has allegedly caused severe damage to their feet, according to the lawsuit.
“It doesn’t matter how big the zoo enclosure is, if it’s expanded or not, whether you call it a preserve or you call it an exhibit. It’s incredibly inhumane for them,” Melissa Lerner, an attorney representing Kelly, said in an interview after a news conference at the zoo’s entrance Sunday.
As far back as 2008, advocates have expressed anguish about Billy’s repetitive head-bobbing, which is a sign of brain damage, according to In Defense of Animals, which this year ranked the L.A. Zoo as No. 1 on its “10 Worst Zoos for Elephants” list for the second year in a row.
Billy is 40 years old, and Tina is 59. Billy came the L.A. Zoo when he was 4, in 1989, and Tina arrived at 44 in 2010, according to the zoo’s website. Asian elephants have a lifespan of roughly 60 years in the wild.
A spokesperson for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass did not immediately provide a comment Sunday. A zoo representative , referred questions to the city attorney’s office; a spokesperson for that office said he could not comment on pending legislation.
L.A. City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, a longtime advocate for the elephants, filed a motion last month seeking to pause their relocation until the City Council could review the possibility of sending them to a sanctuary.
At a budget committee hearing Monday, Blumenfield urged Verret to provide a report that includes the costs and benefits of the transfer to the Tulsa Zoo. He asked Verret to promise that the elephants will not be moved until the City Council could review the report and vote on it.
“What I can promise you is that I am always going to make decisions that are for the best interest of the animals at the zoo, including the elephants,” responded Verret, who was appointed by then-Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2019.
Blumenfield again questioned Verret at the budget hearing Thursday, noting that the organization Last Chance for Animals has offered to pay to move Billy and Tina to a sanctuary.
Verret said no date has been set for the transfer and noted that the L.A. and Tulsa zoos have not signed a contract.
Kelly’s lawsuit also contends that the public and elected officials have been shut out of the decision-making. At both budget hearings, City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said that Verret has the power to move the elephants to Tulsa without the council’s approval.
On Sunday outside the L.A. Zoo, about 35 protesters, many of them from the group Los Angeles for Animals, held “Free Billy” signs and chanted “Mother’s Day is no excuse for animal abuse.” They urged visitors not to enter the zoo.
“Sweeping problems under the rug doesn’t get rid of problems,” said L.A. resident Elvia Sedano, who has been protesting at the zoo on behalf of the elephants nearly every Sunday for two years. “So we’ll be back. We’ll keep coming back until they do the right thing.”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
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