The LA Zoo currently only houses one elephant, Billy, but the new exhibit already under construction was designed to house as many as ten elephants comfortably. The current exhibit area is about one half an acre where as the new exhibit being built will be almost 3 1/2 acres in size.

     Councilman Cardenas’ wants to build a Zoo operated Sanctuary for elephants outside of Los Angeles in the Porter Ranch and Sunland areas where as much as 60 acres of brushy area are available to the city. In the form of two motions, Cardenas asked that the current elephant, Billy be placed in another sanctuary and secondly that a Zoo operated sanctuary be proposed with an advisory board and a feasability study.

     Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district contains the LA Zoo, defended the Zoo and completely upheld the feelings of many that the residents of Los Angeles deserved a first class Zoo and that the finest exhibit for elephants was now under construction that would provide grasslands, waterfalls, and cool ponds for the elephants. Over 10 million dollars has already been spent on the construction of the new elephant exhibit that Councilman Cardenas is proposing to bring to a halt.