Aging elephants moved from Los Angeles to Tulsa Zoo, but advocates say they should be at a sanctuary

LOS ANGELES -- Billy and Tina, the past remaining elephants astatine the Los Angeles Zoo, were softly moved this week to a zoo successful Oklahoma contempt a pending suit seeking to person them transferred alternatively to an carnal sanctuary wherever they could unrecorded retired their days with much country to roam.

The announcement past period that Billy, 40, and Tina, 59, would beryllium sent to the Tulsa Zoo angered carnal advocates who reason that they would beryllium subjected again to an enclosure that's excessively tiny for aging elephants.

The determination came “under screen of darkness,” said Jake Davis, an lawyer for the Nonhuman Rights Project, which is suing the LA Zoo. Davis said helium received reports that the Asian elephants were transferred retired astir 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to elude protesters who've been staking retired the zoo.

The nonprofit's suit asked a justice to merchandise Billy and Tina from the LA Zoo and nonstop them to 1 of 2 accredited sanctuaries due for elephants wherever they would person full-time attraction and ample space.

“At a sanctuary, they could unrecorded arsenic quality intended,” Davis said Wednesday. “They request monolithic swaths of land; they request varied terrain.”

The LA Zoo said successful a connection Wednesday that the elephants “have arrived safely astatine the Tulsa Zoo,” but didn't accidental erstwhile the transportation occurred.

The determination was indispensable due to the fact that the Tulsa Zoo has different Asian elephants who volition supply important socialization for Billy and Tina due to the fact that “keeping them successful larger groups is important for their well-being,” particularly astatine their precocious age, the LA Zoo connection said. Asian elephants typically unrecorded astir 60 years.

A determination to a sanctuary was considered, but the Tulsa Zoo was the apical proposal based connected the standards of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' Elephant Species Survival Plan, which considers “space, herd dynamics, and expertise of the staff,” the LA Zoo said.

“This enactment besides ensured that Billy and Tina would beryllium capable to stay together," the connection said.

Davis said helium expects the Los Angeles suit volition beryllium dismissed but his radical volition not springiness up the combat to get Billy and Tina a sanctuary status home. He said his squad is exploring ineligible options successful Oklahoma. The Tulsa Zoo didn’t instantly reply to a petition for comment.

A abstracted suit filed this period by an LA nonmigratory sought to halt the elephants’ transfer, but a justice denied an exigency question for a impermanent restraining order. That suit includes a declaration by the vocalist Cher, who has advocated for the elephants for years, the Los Angeles Times reported.

“Billy and Tina person served their clip successful confinement,” Cher said successful the declaration. “They merit the accidental to unrecorded retired their lives successful bid and dignity.”

Zoos crossed the state person been targeted successful caller years by carnal activists who knock surviving conditions for elephants. Broadly, immoderate elephant experts accidental municipality zoos simply don’t person the abstraction that elephants, who roam extended distances successful the wild, request for a mean life.

Some larger zoos specified arsenic the Toronto Zoo and San Francisco Zoo person phased retired their elephant programs, sending their aging animals to sanctuaries that person acold much space.

But different zoos accidental they are committed to keeping elephants and are turning to breeding, arguing that a sustainable colonisation of zoo elephants volition assistance spur a committedness to wildlife conservation among aboriginal generations of visitors.

In New York, the Nonhuman Rights Project filed ineligible papers to effort to escaped the Asian elephant Happy from the Bronx Zoo but lost successful court successful 2022. The radical past filed akin papers successful California to effort to escaped the Fresno Chaffee Zoo 's 3 African elephants but a justice ruled against the group.