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 The fight over whether Billy the Elephant should stay at the Los Angeles zoo or be shifted to an animal sanctuary has hit its peak. Celebrities like Cher and Bob Barker have all geared up to save the poor elephant.
More news in this matter has been gathered from quite a number of sources. According to them, Billy the elephant is staying put, and Bob Barker is not at all happy about the whole thing.
On Wednesday the City Council has given the vote in order to finish a 42 million dollar elephant exhibit and keep its lone pachyderm at the zoo. It happened in spite of pleas made by the "Price is Right" host and other celebrities who want to scrap the project.
The decision came after an emotional hearing that was attended by several hundred people. Barker, actress-singer Cher and actress Lily Tomlin also joined in the fight after Barker made a pledge to give 1.5 million dollars sometime in the beginning of this week to shift Billy to a sanctuary in Northern California.
Cher continued, "They say it's always been done this way, there's always been elephants in zoos," "But it doesn't make it right because we've had other things we're ashamed of, like slavery."
However a zoo employee namely Karen Foley, backed by scores of high school science students wearing green "Save Pachyderm Forest" T-shirts, made an appeal to the council to "keep Billy where he belongs, with the family he already has."
Actress Betty White, a longtime volunteer of the zoo, also had spoken at an earlier hearing in favor of keeping Billy at the zoo.
All the supporters of the zoo project cheered up after the council vote. Barker, a longtime animal rights activist, added that he was "terribly disappointed" and also hoped that Billy fared better than other elephants at the zoo.
The officials have said that almost a dozen elephants have died there since the year 1968. However the zoo and its supporters remained contended with several of those who have succumbed to old age and that it has vastly improved its elephant program.
As per plan, the new "Pachyderm Forest" will cover an area of six acres and it will be 7 times larger than the current enclosure and will feature almost 4 acres of open space with pools, mud holes and a waterfall. It is one of the largest planned elephant enclosures in the country.
Hollywood stars namely Barker, Halle Barry and Goldie Hawn have launched complaints of the new exhibit. It is said that the exhibit would still be too confining and depressing for the behemoths that walk dozens of miles a day in the wild.
Last year a city budget committee has given the recommendation that the construction would be stopped as City Hall wrestles with its economic troubles.
Nearly 12 million dollars already has been spent on the project. Many people have showed their concern that if the city did get rid of Billy, it would likely have to return the 5 million dollars to Los Angeles County which has contributed toward building the exhibit.
"The emotional issue hasn't changed. What has changed is the economics." "It costs us more money to stop than to proceed." Councilman Greig Smith has made the comment.
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News / Gossips by Mandyjo69
