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LOS ANGELES, CA, May 12, 2025 – After decades of relentless community advocacy, impassioned pleas from celebrities, expert recommendations, and a judge’s ruling against the Los Angeles Zoo, Mayor Karen Bass's Zoo Director is now quietly preparing to transfer its two elephants, Billy and Tina, not to a sanctuary, but to another zoo. Multiple media outlets have reported on the unfolding story, including the LATimes in this article.
Despite overwhelming public support for retirement to a peaceful sanctuary, sources have revealed that Billy and Tina may be moved as early as this week to the Tulsa "Elephant Preserve," which is not a sanctuary; it is just another zoo.
This decision is not just heartbreaking, it is a betrayal. It defies reason, justice, and the decades-long battle fought by Angelenos, animal welfare experts, and even members of our own City Council. In a stunning act of disregard, Los Angeles Zoo Director Denise Verret – under Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ leadership – is moving forward with this plan without transparency, public input, or accountability.
Los Angeles Councilmember Bob Blumenfield, a vocal advocate for Billy and Tina, formally requested a report on their wellbeing over a year ago. The Motion by Blumenfield, which was approved on May 17, 2024, asked for a report within 30 days on the deaths of Shaunzi and Jewel, out of concern for them and for the future of Billy and Tina. It was approved unanimously by the City Council (14-0), but the report only came when the zoo director announced she was moving Billy and Tina to the Tulsa Zoo just a few weeks ago, effectively thumbing her nose at our elective officials and the democratic process.
In response to the LA Zoo’s misleading public statements and its secretive attempt to move the elephants to a facility that has been falsely marketed as a “preserve” but is, in fact, a zoo with a long and troubling history, long-time LA resident John Kelly has filed a lawsuit seeking an emergency injunction to halt the transfer of Billy and Tina. Listen to his attorney, Melissa Lerner, speak on the case with Tiffany Hobbs, on KFI this past weekend.
The lawsuit demands that the elephants’ future be decided through an open, transparent process grounded in science and public interest, not secret deals. At the very least, the legal action asks the court to pause any move until the City Council can fully consider the motion introduced by Councilmember Blumenfield regarding their welfare.
The Zoo claims, without basis, that it is acting in the best interests of its elephants. But the truth is just the opposite. After seven years of litigation and a full trial on the merits of their claims, Judge John Segal, now an appellate Justice, found that the L.A. Zoo employees were "delusional" in not acknowledging that "captivity is a terrible existence for any intelligent, self-aware species, which the undisputed evidence shows that elephants are." The injunction he issued was reversed on the legal technicality that a civil court cannot enjoin criminal conduct.
Historically, Los Angeles has prided itself on being a leader in ethical governance and protecting the vulnerable – yet on this issue, it is lagging behind many other major cities and even some developing nations. Why Mayor Bass is on the wrong side of this issue is a mystery … because Mayor Bass and her Zoo Director refuse to discuss their decision in a public forum. Instead, they have issued the equivalent of an executive order – unilateral, undebated, and imposed without public input – mirroring the very kind of top-down governance so many have condemned at the federal level.
The clear and growing trend – rooted in basic decency and modern science – is to permanently shut down elephant exhibits and send elephants to sanctuaries where they can truly thrive. At least 38 zoos in North America have closed their elephant exhibits, including the San Francisco Zoo, the Santa Barbara Zoo, the Monterey Zoo, the Sacramento Zoo, and the Oakland Zoo.
Ojai’s City Council has made it illegal to keep elephants in zoos within their City limits “in accordance with evolving standards of morality, scientific discovery, and human experience.”
The science and suffering of elephants in zoos are so clear that this is no longer just an animal welfare issue – it’s a defining moment for who we are as a society. The Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Animal Law Section supports sending Billy and Tina to a sanctuary, explaining that “retiring Billy and Tina to a sanctuary is not a radical position—it is a mainstream, compassionate, and evidence-based approach to address the inherent cruelty of their confinement,” listing Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe, one of our nation’s preeminent constitutional scholars, and two judges from New York State’s highest court, among the many legal experts who have argued that keeping elephants in zoos is inherently cruel and inhumane.
Civil rights organizations that have nothing to do with animal welfare are taking a stand for Billy and Tina and speaking out about the inhumanity of keeping elephants in zoos, and concerns about the democratic process. The Congress of Racial Equality of California (CORE-CA), which produces Los Angeles’ Annual Kingdom Day Parade with an attendance of more than 200,000 live viewers and more than 2.4 million televised viewers, explained why it “stands in unwavering support of transferring Billy and Tina to an elephant sanctuary rather than to the Tulsa Zoo”:
”The civil rights movement has taught us that injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. That lesson, echoed by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., compels us to act when we see suffering and systemic harm. … To ignore the suffering of Billy and Tina is to betray the very values of compassion, dignity, and moral responsibility that we exist to uphold. … Failing to act, and failing to act promptly, not only perpetuates their suffering, but aligns our city with a legacy of injustice we have worked so hard to overcome.”
The Multicultural Bar Alliance of Southern California, an alliance of more than 20 diverse minority bar associations representing lawyers, judges and legal professionals from historically marginalized communities, is “deeply concerned that the Los Angeles Zoo may act unilaterally and move Billy and Tina before the City Council has the opportunity to vote on [Councilmember Bob Blumenfield’s] pending motion…. Our concern is rooted in the core principles of human rights – respect for due process and the moral obligation to protect the vulnerable. Circumventing a pending motion of our elected officials would be a violation of the democratic process. Moreover, transferring Billy and Tina to another zoo ignores the overwhelming scientific evidence showing that captivity in zoos inflicts profound and unfathomable harm on elephants – highly intelligent, social beings whose physical and psychological needs cannot be met in a zoo setting.”
“There is no benefit for the elephants in this potential move to Tulsa -it is clear that the LA Zoo is only transferring Billy and Tina to another zoo, so they do not die on their watch. In doing so, they are ignoring the opportunity to give them a real home at one of many qualified sanctuaries around the world,” said Judie Mancuso, Founder and President of Social Compassion in Legislation. “It is a step backward at the very moment the city has a chance to do the right thing.”
“Moving Billy and Tina to another zoo with slightly more space does not address the fundamental mismatch between captivity and elephant biology. In my professional opinion, transporting them to the Tulsa Zoo without public review and assurance of their wellbeing would be irresponsible.” Dr. Chris Draper, world-renowned expert on elephants in both sanctuaries and zoos.
In particular, Billy’s story is one that has moved millions: an elephant kept alone for years, swaying from psychological distress, standing on unforgiving ground as hard as concrete, far from the wild-born life he was meant to live. For years, scientists and welfare groups cited his case as a textbook example of why wild animals do not belong in urban zoos. And for years, his placement at a sanctuary remained the north star.
The Zoo’s quiet decision to remove Billy and Tina now, without ensuring they will finally know peace, erodes public trust, and stains the legacy of every official who claims to care for animal welfare, yet is allowing this to happen.
"After decades of study, working with the foremost elephant experts in the world; seven years of litigation to save Billy and Tina from the L.A. Zoo; and formation and development of sanctuaries in Cambodia and Thailand to rescue and rehabilitate elephants, it is painfully obvious to me that the L.A. Zoo will say and do anything to mislead the public into thinking that they are concerned about the health and welfare of their animals.
They know the truth. They were told by a court and by every honest expert who has been consulted. Elephants don't live in zoos, they suffer horribly and then die there. And the L.A. Zoo record of double-digit elephant deaths confirms this grim reality.
The only chance for Billy and Tina to live a peaceful life and recover as much as possible is to be freed into a qualified sanctuary. This is why I have offered to arrange to fly Billy and Tina to Cambodia, and release them into a lush jungle sanctuary, as we did for Kaavan from the Pakistan Zoo, all at no cost to Los Angeles," said David Casselman, Co-founder of Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Founder and CEO of the nonprofit Ecoflix Foundation.
Anyone who lives in the City of Los Angeles is urged to contact Mayor Bass to demand that she halt the imminent transfer of Billy and Tina. The public deserves a transparent process and a full hearing before any decision is made.
Mayor Bass: (213) 978-0600,
BIT.LY/CONTACTMAYORBASS
Watch Zoo Director below tell LA City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield that the decision has been made on the fate of Billy and Tina, and that the City Council has no say in the matter.
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