Elephant Guardians of Los Angeles
USA (Los Angeles, California) · 34.05°N · 118.24°W
Campaigning to move captive elephants from the LA Zoo into sanctuary, with freedom and dignity for all wildlife.
About Elephant Guardians of Los Angeles
Elephant Guardians of Los Angeles is a grassroots advocacy group campaigning to free captive elephants from the Los Angeles Zoo and to end the keeping of wildlife in captivity.
Elephants are wide-ranging, deeply social and intelligent animals, and confinement takes a visible toll. The group's central concern is Billy, an Asian elephant held in Los Angeles since 1989, who displays the repetitive rocking, swaying and head-bobbing that captive elephants develop under chronic stress. For the founders, that suffering is the heart of the matter and the reason the organisation exists.
Started in 2015 by two public school teachers, Elephant Guardians works as a campaigning organisation rather than a sanctuary. It builds public pressure on the City of Los Angeles, mobilises supporters, and calls for elephants to be retired to an accredited sanctuary where they would have space, social company and a more natural life.
Much of the work is public-facing: petitions, rallies, and engagement with councillors, experts and the wider community to keep the issue visible and push for a vote on the elephants' future. The group also makes the broader case against wildlife captivity, using Billy's story to question what zoos can really offer animals like him.
The argument is simple: animals with such complex needs deserve better than a small enclosure. Support strengthens this campaigning, helping a small grassroots effort hold a major institution to account and advocate for a more humane outcome.
Sanctuary advocacy
Pressing for the release of the elephants held at Los Angeles Zoo into spacious sanctuary care.
Public awareness and education
Helping people understand why these intelligent, social animals cannot thrive in zoo captivity.
Candlelight Vigil4Elephants
Co-organising an annual global vigil that remembers elephants who died in captivity each year.
Free Billy storytelling
Supporting film and campaign work that puts a spotlight on the case for releasing Billy.
Be part of the movement
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