John,

Billy the elephant was just a baby when he was kidnapped from his jungle home in Malaysia, and sentenced to a lifetime in captivity at the worst zoo in North America. In the 35 years that he has lived at the Los Angeles Zoo, he has been chained up, beaten with a bull hook, and subjected to invasive sperm retrieval procedures for the zoo’s breeding program.

While the zoo has stopped physically abusing Billy, he still lives alone in a tiny enclosure where he paces and bobs his head – clear signs of a traumatized elephant in distress. And Billy is not the only example -- elephants across the U.S. live in compounds that are way too small for them, dying horrible, pre-mature deaths.

But now, local activists convinced an LA City Council committee to vote in favor of freeing Billy to a sanctuary. This could be the key to ensuring a better life for ALL zoo elephants in the States! So let's ramp up the pressure now and push the full City Council to vote to free Billy!

Sign the petition demanding that the Los Angeles City Council free Billy the elephant NOW!

For years, celebrities like Cher, Lily Tomlin, Kim Basinger, and Bob Barker have joined local activists’ call for Billy’s release. But ever since the LA Zoo recently euthanized two elephants in one year, and Billy suffered a painful foot disease for eight months before receiving care, the cry for his release has reached a fever pitch.

Elephants are the largest land mammals on Earth, and in the wild they can roam up to 80 kilometres per day over at least a thousand hectares. Billy’s enclosure at the LA Zoo measures merely a quarter of that. Because he isn’t able to walk the distances his body was built for, Billy suffers from chronic joint and foot problems – ailments that have led to the premature deaths of many other elephants in captivity, as countless of them live in enclosures that are way too small, and a far cry from what they need.

By now, so many people have expressed concern for Billy's safety, that the LA City Council has demanded that zoo officials conduct a study to determine whether the zoo needs to make changes to how it cares for the last remaining elephants.

Los Angeles City Council: Free Billy -- a better life for elephants in captivity everywhere!