For years, they were the center of attention at the L.A. Zoo, but starting this week, this aging pair of elephants will have a new home in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Contrary to the crowds their presence at the Zoo generated, their journey to Oklahoma was stealthy, as if they wanted to go unnoticed and unable to say goodbye, even if only metaphorically.
Billy and Tina, the last remaining elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo, were quietly moved despite pending lawsuits seeking to have them transferred instead to an animal sanctuary where they could live out their days with more room to roam.
The announcement last month that Billy, 40, and Tina, 59, would be sent to the Tulsa Zoo angered animal advocates who argued that they would be subjected again to an enclosure that’s too small for aging elephants.
The move came “under cover of darkness,” said Jake Davis, an attorney for the Nonhuman Rights Project. Davis said he received reports that the Asian elephants were transferred out about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to elude protesters who’ve been staking out the zoo.
The nonprofit on Tuesday filed a petition asking a court to release Billy and Tina from the LA Zoo and send them to one of two accredited sanctuaries appropriate for elephants where they would have full-time care and ample space.
“At a sanctuary, they could live as nature intended,” Davis said Wednesday. “They need massive swaths of land; they need varied terrain.”
The LA Zoo said in a statement Wednesday that the elephants “have arrived safely at the Tulsa Zoo” but didn’t say when the transfer occurred.
