LOS ANGELES — Billy and Tina, a pair of Asian elephants long housed at the Los Angeles Zoo, are now at the Tulsa Zoo but the controversy over their fate is far from over, as evidenced by a vocal protest outside zoo gates May 24.
Protesters began gathering outside the zoo shortly after 10 a.m. when the gates opened, in an event organized by Los Angeles for Animals. A handful of police officers were already on site.
By noon, an estimated two or three dozen demonstrators stood between parking lot vendors and the zoo entrance, chanting, “Shame on you, L.A. Zoo,” led by a woman with a bullhorn. No arrests were reported.
“Please show up and show we will not forget them and what the zoo did to them,” organizers said on social media. “Whether you want to hold a sign, chant, do speakouts, take photos and videos, hand out flyers or talk to zoo goers, we have a place for you with our team. Billy and Tina need you.”
The fight is not over.
“We still have viable legal options to secure Billy and Tina’s freedom in an elephant sanctuary, and we’re not stopping,” noted the Nonhuman Rights Project’s Litigation Director Elizabeth Stein.
Animal advocacy groups such as Social Compassion in Legislation, among others, had been pushing zoo officials to delay the announced move of the elephants to Tulsa, insisting the animals would be better served with a transfer to a sanctuary where they would have more room to roam.
“They are now in prison, and there’s even talk that Billy is going to be used in a breeding program,” Judie Mancuso, president of Social Compassion in Legislation, a political animal advocacy group, told City News Service May 21. “That’s like torture on top of torture.”
According to Mancuso, advocates brought one sanctuary proposal to Mayor Karen Bass. Philanthropist and EcoFlix CEO David Casselman offered to pay and relocate the elephants to a sanctuary he owns in Cambodia, but Mancuso said the proposal was ignored. Advocates were prepared to bring the city two more proposals from local sanctuaries, but the next thing they knew, the elephants had shackles on them, Mancuso said.
“So then we knew. It’s coming soon,” Mancuso said of the elephants’ relocation.
The Tulsa Zoo’s Elephant Experience and Preserve was already home to five Asian elephants, and its preserve covers 17 acres, including a 36,650-square-foot elephant barn and a 10-plus-acre wooded elephant preserve. Critics insisted that the size of the enclosure is far too small to accommodate two more elephants.
“We call out the Los Angeles Zoo for its scandalous and unethical treatment of Billy and Tina — if the elephants were truly, ‘beloved,’ they’d have been sent to a sanctuary years ago,” Courtney Scott, elephant consultant for In Defense of Animals, said in a statement. “Tulsa Zoo’s new exhibit isn’t fit for a single elephant, let alone seven. This is not conservation; it’s cruelty.”
In Defense of Animals is a national animal protection nonprofit that advocates for the rights and welfare of animals.
The Tulsa Zoo was named to In Defense of Animals’ “10 Worst Zoos for Elephants” list in 2022 for what the group called false claims that its new preserve represented a meaningful improvement for its elephants. According to the organization, the zoo’s elephant enclosure is severely cramped, unnatural and harmful to the animals’ health.
City Councilman Bob Blumenfield previously introduced a motion urging the zoo to delay its decision until additional options could be explored and calling on zoo officials to appear before the council prior to moving the elephants.
However, Billy and Tina disappeared from their L.A. Zoo enclosure May 20, prompting an outcry from activists demanding answers about their whereabouts.
TMZ reported that the elephants were put into crates and loaded onto a semi-truck for the transfer around 1:30 a.m. May 20, citing sources connected to the Los Angeles Zoo.
The zoo ultimately confirmed the move the following day, doubling-down on its insistence that the move to the Tulsa Zoo was the best choice for the elephants.
“The Zoo evaluated all available options including (Association of Zoos and Aquariums) accredited sanctuaries,” according to a zoo statement.
“Mayor Bass inquired about moving the elephants to a sanctuary — the Zoo worked to ensure that all viable options had been considered during the course of the Zoo’s comprehensive evaluation.
“The decision to move the elephants to the Tulsa Zoo was made with the health and well-being of the individual elephants as the top priority and at the recommendation of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its Elephant Species Survival Plan, which advises on the management of the entire population of elephants in AZA-accredited institutions as a single herd,” the zoo’s statement continued.
“The Tulsa Zoo was the top recommendation of the [species survival plan] based on space, herd dynamics and expertise of the staff. This option also ensured that Billy and Tina would be able to remain together.”
Zoo officials announced April 22 that the elephants would be relocated to the Elephant Experience and Preserve in Tulsa, which prompted protests and a lawsuit.
Animal advocates also sent a letter to Bass, co-signed by such celebrities as Cher, Alicia Silverstone, Diane Warren and Justin Theroux.
We are writing you in support of moving the last two Los Angeles Asian elephants to a sanctuary, not another zoo,” the letter said. “We urge you to allow these majestic beings to retire.”
Last week, a judge declined to issue a temporary restraining order to block the relocation of the elephants.
Los Angeles Zoo CEO Denise Verret previously said she would make decisions that are for the best interest of the animals.
Billy is 40 years old and Tina is 59. Zoo officials said they have been evaluating the elephant exhibit since the deaths of two other elephants — Jewel, age 61, in 2023, and Shaunzi, age 53, in 2024 — although they said those animals were in “declining health due to issues unrelated to the zoo’s enclosure or care.”
