This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Your support is still needed for Billy and Tina. Please take action here.

5/21/2025: UPDATE: LA Zoo Betrays Public Trust and Ships Elephants off in Dead of Night to Another Zoo. LEARN MORE

5/9/2025: UPDATE - LA Zoo is sending Billy and Tina to another terrible zoo! Please contact Mayor Bass urgently.

In 2023, the effort to release Billy the Asian elephant from the Los Angeles Zoo where he's spent nearly his entire life to sanctuary entered its 20th year. Now, the Los Angeles City Council holds the key to his freedom in its hands. We need your help now to pressure councilmembers to free Billy before he suffers any more physical and mental decline.

Billy has been bobbing and swaying in his tiny yard since 1989 when he was uprooted from his home in Malaysia and shipped to the Los Angeles Zoo. In Defense of Animals joined the fight for his freedom, along with celebrities Cher and Lily Tomlin, scores of passionate advocates, and former LA City Councilor Paul Koretz. On November 29, 2022, a ray of hope emerged when an LA City Council committee voted unanimously to end Billy's days of suffering in the Los Angeles Zoo and send him to sanctuary. But the struggle is not over. Now, the full 15-member council needs to do the right thing and vote to retire Billy to one of the two sanctuaries that have offered to take him. How many more days, months, and years does Billy have to pace in his one-acre yard? Billy's mind and body are under siege from the brain-numbing boredom and stress of 34 years confined in a cramped and sterile environment.

Your action is needed today to help end Billy's bleak life of suffering at the LA Zoo. A new freer and happier life await him, in a serene, spacious sanctuary where he can roam and forage and explore to his heart's content. Billy has unwillingly given over three decades of his life to the LA Zoo'. It's time to gift Billy his freedom.

Letter to Decision Maker(s) for reference:

Subject: Send Billy & Tina to a Sanctuary - NOT Another Zoo

As someone deeply concerned with the welfare of elephants and on behalf of In Defense of Animals, an animal protection organization with over 250,000 supporters, I urge you to send Billy and Tina, the two remaining elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo to sanctuary. 

The Detroit Zoo and the Oakland Zoo released their elephants to sanctuary. The former Detroit Zoo Director Ron Kagan stated: “It was a very good decision and a happy ending and a great thing for the zoo, our attendance at the zoo went up, not down.”

Billy and Tina have been pacing in their tiny yards for many years. For the last 20 years, activists, veterinarians, and celebrities have been pleading for release to sanctuary. Bill Maher, Sarah Silverman and Jorja Fox all support the call to free Billy and Tina.

Billy bobs and sways from the stress and mind-numbing boredom of his life at the LA Zoo. 

Tina is declining mentally and physically.

The time is now to send them to a place where they can at long last enjoy life as real elephants. In sanctuary, they can roam on acres of varied terrain, forage on roots, grass, and trees, and have a chance to heal from the trauma and boredom that have caused their severe stereotypical behavior. 

I urge you to take this action urgently, before Billy and Tina are sent to Tulsa Zoo. 

The Tulsa Zoo was named among the 10 Worst Zoos in 2022 over a lack of space, which causes a wide variety of debilitating physical and mental health  problems for elephants. Tulsa Zoo's minimally expanded "elephant preserve" renovation is far too small for the three elephants exhibited there at the time. There are now five, and Billy and Tina will make seven. This space is less than 1 percent the size of an Asian elephant's smallest home range. 

Learn more: https://www.idausa.org/campaign/elephants/10-worst-zoos-for-elephants-2022/#twz22_8

Please act urgently to divert these elephants from continued zoo captivity to sanctuary freedom.

Thank you for your attention to this vital issue.

Sincerely,

Signed

This alert is no longer active, but here for reference. Your support is still needed for Billy and Tina. Please take action here.