The San Francisco Zoo is Unfit for Pandas - Speak Out!

Earlier this year, San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Wu Minglu, secretary general of China’s Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA), signed an agreement to lease two giant pandas to the San Francisco Zoo. While the Mayor's office hailed this as a boost for city tourism, in reality, it means sending two innocent pandas to a zoo ill-equipped to care for them or any other animals.

The San Francisco Zoo has a dark history of animal neglect and severe mismanagement, resulting in several tragic deaths. These include the crushing of a young gorilla named Kabibe by a hydraulic door and the gruesome death of a penguin named Handy Harry due to a guillotine-style gate. The zoo has also faced multiple thefts of animals and a 2007 incident where a tiger named Tatiana escaped her enclosure, killed a visitor, and was later shot to death by police.

The zoo's troubled history extends to its elephants, with two dying within months of each other, prompting the San Francisco City Council to intervene and order the relocation of the zoo’s remaining elephants to a sanctuary. More recently, a wild puma entered the poorly maintained zoo, killing a kangaroo and two wallaroos.

Now, as this inadequate facility prepares to host two victims of China’s "Panda Diplomacy" program, the San Francisco Animal Control and Welfare Commission has issued a damning report outlining the zoo's many safety hazards for animals, employees, and visitors. The report describes sections of the facility as dilapidated, with outdated and substandard enclosures in dire need of repairs. The Commission is now urging the SF Board of Supervisors to conduct a full audit of the zoo.

Pandas should not be shipped around the world as mascots for China under any circumstances, but sending them to the San Francisco Zoo would place these magnificent animals in immediate danger. The panda program is projected to cost $35 million for habitat construction, plus $1-2 million annually in rental fees, funds that should instead be used to improve the living conditions of the zoo's existing animals, many of whom exhibit signs of severe stress and are housed in unsuitable environments.

Please join Species Unite in calling on the San Francisco Zoo to cancel its planned panda acquisition and prioritize upgrading its facilities to improve the lives of the animals already in its care.