TWO PANELS BACK PLAN FOR EXHIBIT FOES SAY ELEPHANTS NEED SANCTUARY.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

After delays to study elephant health at the Los Angeles Zoo, two City Council committees endorsed a plan Monday to build a $39 million exhibit to house three pachyderms.

The revised design for the Elephants of Surin exhibit would increase the animals' space from a half-acre to 3.5 acres and add lush forests, grassland, ponds and even waterfalls. Zoo officials previously proposed a 2-acre, $19 million habitat.

But critics blasted the 3.5-acre project as too small and expensive, saying the elephants would be better served in an accredited sanctuary.

"Taxpayers do not want to spend $40 million on one exhibit that is still not adequate for the animals being put in it," animal rights activist Catherine Doyle told a joint meeting of the Budget and Finance Committee and the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee.

"Families do not stop visiting zoos with no elephants. If this exhibit goes forward, taxpayers will be reminded over and over that this money was frivolously spent."

But exhibit supporters - and Councilman Tom LaBonge, whose district includes the zoo - said elephants are among the zoo's most popular exhibit, and the expansion is needed to keep them healthy.

"It's my turn, as a council person, to stand up for the Los Angeles Zoo. I think it's real important to upgrade the zoo and the pachyderm exhibit," LaBonge said.

The City Council is set to vote on the project April 19.

Plans call for the project to be financed with $17.7 million in Proposition A and CC bond funds and $14 million borrowed from the city's Municipal Investment Corp., which will cost about $1 million a year in debt service paid from the city's general fund.

The remaining cost would be covered with $4.5 million from the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, the nonprofit fundraising arm of the zoo, and a $2.3 million private donation.

The hearing drew dozens of animal-rights activists, including actress Betty White and "The Price Is Right" host Bob Barker. Barker advocated sending the elephants to an animal sanctuary rather than keeping them in a zoo.

"We should ignore this suggestion of increasing the habitat and release those elephants and let them go into a sanctuary where they can spend the few remaining years to them in an atmosphere that is the nearest possible thing to their normal way of living in the wild," he said.

Nevertheless, the city's administrative officer, Bill Fujioka, urged the committees to endorse the exhibit plan.

"The changes to the zoo that have occurred over the last seven years have been dramatic. This zoo, I strongly believe, after we finish these exhibits will rival other zoos in the country and the world."

The fate of the zoo's elephants has become an issue since Tara, an African elephant, died in 2004 at age 39. Three pachyderms remain at the zoo.

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