The Toronto Zoo's elephants may soon be packing their trunks if a charity group offering to transport the animals to a sanctuary in California gets its way.
Six months after the zoo decided to close its elephant exhibit and move them to a zoo with a warmer climate, officials still haven't found the right zoo to send the pachyderms.
Zoo Check Canada is offering to move Iringa, Toka and Thika to the Paws Sanctuary free of charge -- a move that would cost the group between $100,000 and $300,000.
"We'll pay the costs for moving the elephants," Julie Woodyer, from Zoo Check Canada, told CTV Toronto. "It's a huge cost savings."
The zoo, like all city departments and agencies, has been asked by Mayor Rob Ford to cut 10 per cent of its budget.
Moving the elephant exhibit would save the zoo more than $600,000 a year.
"We've had a very generous offer. It wouldn't cost taxpayers any money because private sector donors have said, ‘We'll pay for the transportation and we'll pay for the care of those animals,'" Coun. Glenn De Baeremaeker said.
"It's great financially for the taxpayer, it's great for the elephants and it's great for the people of the City of Toronto."
However, not all councillors agree that the elephants should be taken to the sanctuary.
Coun. Gloria Lindsay Luby said that she supports moving the elephants to another zoo and not the California sanctuary.
"I think that because they are zoo elephants, they should remain with a zoo," she said. "This sanctuary does not put them on display."
Zoo Check Canada says the sanctuary is instead a retirement for the elephants.
"If they even just went and did the research there and compare it to any other zoo, they would realize that it is the best facility," Woodyer said. "And there's the added bonus that it's not going to cost anything, it seems to me to be a no-brainer."
Toronto Zoo says it could take up to two years to move the elephants, while Zoo Check Canada says it could fly them to California before Christmas.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Colin D'Mello
