Please Help Billy the Elephant Move to a Sanctuary

Published under Action Needed!.

Summary: We urgently need your help to close down the Los Angeles Zoo elephant exhibit and send its lone elephant, Billy, to a sanctuary. We are hopeful that we can free him from his lonely existence — please don’t let him down!

Please Help Billy the Elephant Move to a Sanctuary Please Attend Rescheduled L.A. City Council Meetings

A Personal Message from Will Travers and Born Free USA

We urgently need your help to close down the Los Angeles Zoo elephant exhibit and send its lone elephant, Billy, to a sanctuary. We are hopeful that we can free him from his lonely existence — please don’t let him down!

With information provided by Born Free USA CEO Will Travers and others, L.A. City Council member Tony Cardenas has presented a motion to halt the L.A. Zoo’s $42 million elephant exhibit renovation. Despite its mammoth price tag and expense to taxpayers, we believe it still will not provide the space nor quality of environment elephants need, and that elephants will continue to suffer and die unnecessarily at the zoo.

Fifteen elephants have died at the L.A. Zoo. More than half never lived to age 20. Elephants have a natural lifespan of 60 to 70 years. Billy is held in solitary confinement, where he spends much of his time repetitively bobbing his head up and down in a tiny pen of only one and half acres. If the council votes to close the elephant exhibit, Billy will be able to start a new life in a natural-habitat sanctuary where he’ll have the space (20 acres), natural conditions, and companionship that all elephants so desperately need.

Please attend these two very important meetings. It’s critical that we have as many people as possible at both:

WHAT:
Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee meeting
WHEN:
Tuesday, January 27, 3:00pm
WHERE:
L.A. City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, L.A. 90012
John Ferraro Council Chamber, Room 340

WHAT:
L.A. City Council meeting and final vote on shutting down the L.A. Zoo elephant exhibit
WHEN:
Wednesday, January 28, 10:00am
WHERE:
L.A. City Hall, 200 N. Spring Street, L.A., 90012
John Ferraro Council Chamber, Room 340

SPEAK OUT: We need people to speak at the hearing. If you can, please be prepared to speak for 1 minute during public comment. Keep your comments concise, polite, positive, and focused on your support for closing down the elephant exhibit and sending Billy to a sanctuary. Arrive early enough to complete a public comment card.

Zoo supporters will be out in large numbers. Let’s be sure that our voices of reason and compassion demonstrate clear and strong support for ending Billy’s years of isolation and deprivation!

Other Actions:

Write/Call the Mayor and City Council Members

Tell the City Council that taxpayers don’t want their money wasted on an elephant exhibit that still doesn’t give elephants the space they need. Please send emails and make phone calls (always polite) to express your support for shutting down the L.A. Zoo elephant exhibit.

If you don’t live in the City of L.A., please contact the Mayor and L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti (contact info provided below) and express your support for closing the elephant exhibit and sending Billy to a sanctuary.

To locate your councilmember on-line, visit www.lacity.org and scroll down to “My Neighborhood” and enter your address. You can also dial 311 within the City of Los Angeles, or call 213-473-3231 from the Greater Los Angeles area.

SAMPLE MESSAGE (please personalize as much as possible; tell your council member that you are a constituent):

I support halting construction of the $42 million elephant exhibit at the L.A. Zoo and sending the elephant, Billy, to a sanctuary. Please don’t waste taxpayer dollars on an elephant exhibit that still won’t give captive elephants the room they need. I urge that you vote to stop construction of the exhibit and to send Billy to a spacious elephant sanctuary, where he can live a life closer to what nature intended.

PHONE MESSAGE (when calling your Council Member’s office, please identify yourself as a constituent):

Keep it simple: “I am asking Council Member [last name] to please vote to halt the construction of the elephant exhibit at the L.A. Zoo and send Billy to a sanctuary.”

Thank you for taking action to help rescue Billy and shut down the L.A. Zoo elephant exhibit!

Contacts

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa
Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
213-978-0600
213-978-0750 fax
mayor@lacity.org

Council Members Email Addresses
(does not include Councilmember Alarcon; use contact form for him as indicated below)

Council Members Contact Information

District 1 - Ed Reyes
213-473-700
213-485-8907 fax
councilmember.reyes@lacity.org

District 2 - Wendy Greuel
213-473-7002
213-680-7895 fax
councilmember.greuel@lacity.org

District 3 - Dennis P. Zine
213-473-7003
213-485-8988 fax
councilmember.zine@lacity.org

District 4 - Tom LaBonge
213-473-7004
213-624-7810 fax
councilmember.labonge@lacity.org

District 5 - Jack Weiss
213-473-7005
213-978-2250 fax
councilmember.weiss@lacity.org

District 6 - Tony Cardenas - Originator of the Motion
213-473-7006
213-847-0549 fax
councilmember.cardenas@lacity.org

District 7 - Richard Alarcon
213-473-7007
213-847-0707 fax
Email: use contact form at www.lacity.org/council/cd7/contact.htm

District 8 - Bernard Parks
213-473-7008
213-485-7683 fax
councilmember.parks@lacity.org

District 9 - Jan Perry
213-473-7009
213-473-5946 fax
jan.perry@lacity.org

District 10 - Herb J. Wesson, Jr.
213-473-7010
213-485-9829 fax
councilmember.wesson@lacity.org

District 11 - Bill Rosendahl
213-473-7011
213-473-6926 fax
councilmember.rosendahl@lacity.org

District 12 - Greig Smith
213-473-7012
213-473-6925 fax
councilmember.smith@lacity.org

District 13 - Eric Garcetti
213-473-7013
213-613-0819 fax
councilmember.garcetti@lacity.org

District 14 - Jose Huizar
213-473-7014
213-847-0680 fax
councilmember.huizar@lacity.org

District 15 - Janice Hahn
213-473-7015
213-626-5431 fax
councilmember.hahn@lacity.org

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Please Help Billy the Elephant Move to a Sanctuary