A Los Angeles County civil grand jury says the L.A. Zoo can’t continue operating the way it has been — citing deterioration of its facilities and rapidly declining membership. The jury is urging a new public-private partnership, saying the action is crucial for the facility to survive.
The Los Angeles Zoo is the last major American zoo governed by a city department. Managing it, the report notes, requires navigating a bureaucratic jungle that includes the zoo commission, neighborhood councils, city attorney, city controller and other departments, as well as the mayor and the City Council.
The jury found that the city, faced with financial problems including a $1-million budget shortfall this year, would continue to struggle in managing the zoo, which has deteriorated and lacks funding for maintenance and new projects amid ongoing revenue loss.
According to the report, zoo membership dropped from 36,914 in April 2025 to 28,440 in February 2026, representing a loss of 8,474 memberships, or a 23% drop in less than one year.
“Simply stated, to keep these important educational institutions afloat, almost all zoos across the United States have turned to public-private partnerships,” the civil grand jury wrote in its 2025-2026 report.
The jury acknowledged that the shift would be difficult.
“The zoo transition is extremely complex, involving chain of command, authority, management, supervision, labor, utilities, maintenance, construction, finances, and animal care (acquisition, exhibits, and disposition),” the report read. “Every participating agency, director, and manager must understand this is not a ‘win-win’ situation, but rather a question of ‘What is best for the Zoo?’”
The civil grand jury recommendation comes as the city remains in a legal dispute over a $50-million endowment with the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., a longtime fundraising partner.
For nearly five decades, GLAZA assisted the zoo by funding exhibits, plant and animal species conservation, capital projects, and education and community outreach programs, according to the report.
“A community zoo needs consistent nourishment to flourish,” the report read. “For a zoo, besides significant volunteer participation, the nourishment is money.”
The jury noted that it is often a wealthy benefactor or nonprofit that generates that money, and for years the Los Angeles Zoo believed it had that in GLAZA.
“When that belief turned into litigation, our zoo’s future became imperiled,” the report read. “Its relationship with GLAZA now lies in ruins, crashed on the rocky shore of a major lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court.”
In providing its recommendation, the jury suggested that the city look at other successful private-public partnerships including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art or the Natural History Museum.
Each is run by a nonprofit with some of its leadership appointed directly by the County Board of Supervisors.
The Los Angeles Zoo, which houses more than 1,600 animals, has become dilapidated over the years. Exhibits including the lions, bears, sea lions and pelicans have closed because they need major renovations. The last two elephants, Billy and Tina, were transferred last year to the Tulsa Zoo after decades of campaigning by animal rights advocates over living conditions and a history of deaths and health challenges.
The 59-year-old zoo, which occupies 133 acres in the northeast corner of Griffith Park, has struggled to maintain its national accreditation, with federal regulators finding peeling paint and rust in some exhibits.
U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors and the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums found a “critical lack of funding and staffing to address even the most basic repairs,” L.A. Zoo officials wrote in a budget document in November 2024.
The civil grand jury made similar notes when it visited the zoo as part of its probe.
“The Zoo is special, a community asset with naturalistic exhibits, conservation initiatives, animal interaction, and in-depth programming, providing such a meaningful experience takes money, lots of it,” the civil grand jury wrote in its report. “The City of Los Angeles today can no longer tolerate or sustain that burden on its budget.”
To safeguard the zoo’s legacy, the report recommended that the city begin looking for a new benefactor at least by next April, in particular someone familiar with the public-private zoo partnership to assist with the transition.
Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.
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