A Los Angeles County civil grand jury report says the L.A. Zoo can’t continue operating the way it has been, citing deterioration of its facilities and rapidly declining membership.
The grand jury urged city officials to create a new public-private partnership, saying the action is crucial for the landmark zoo’s long-term survival.
The L.A. Zoo is the last major American zoo governed by a city department, the report said. The grand jury noted that managing it requires navigating a bureaucratic jungle that includes the Zoo Commission, neighborhood councils, the city attorney, the city controller and other departments, as well as the mayor and the City Council.
The grand jury found that the city, faced with financial problems including a $1-million budget shortfall this year, would continue to struggle in managing the zoo, which has deteriorated and lacks funding for maintenance and new projects amid ongoing revenue loss.
According to the report, zoo membership dropped from 36,914 in April 2025 to 28,440 in February 2026, representing a 23% drop in less than a year.
A sign for a closed exhibit is posted in an animal enclosure at the Los Angeles Zoo on June 27.
(Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times)
“Simply stated, to keep these important educational institutions afloat, almost all zoos across the United States have turned to public-private partnerships,” the grand jury wrote in its 2025-2026 report.
A spokesperson for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said her office is “reviewing their recommendations — including the proposal to leverage public-private partnerships” and that Bass “looks forward to exploring these options.”
“Mayor Bass thanks the volunteer members of the Los Angeles County civil grand jury for their interest in the success of the L.A. Zoo and for their recognition of the zoo’s leadership in animal care and conservation as identified in the report,” the spokesperson said.
City officials have been talking for several years about ways to draw more visitors to the zoo.
In 2021, they unveiled a vision for a $650-million remaking and expansion of the facility so it could better compete with tourist attractions such as Disneyland. But the plan met with some pushback from environmentalists who questioned the size of the expansion.
At the time, officials said roughly 89% of the zoo’s annual visitors were residents of Los Angeles County and 11% were tourists. A bigger zoo might draw more tourists, experts said at the time.
In 2023, the City Council approved the environmental impact report for the renovation of 1960s-era zoo, but officials were still developing specific plans.
The grand jury said major changes to the zoo would be difficult.
“The zoo transition is extremely complex, involving chain of command, authority, management, supervision, labor, utilities, maintenance, construction, finances, and animal care (acquisition, exhibits, and disposition),” the report read. “Every participating agency, director, and manager must understand this is not a ‘win-win’ situation, but rather a question of ‘What is best for the Zoo?’”
Representatives for the zoo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The civil grand jury recommendation comes as the city remains in a legal dispute over a $50-million endowment with the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., a longtime fundraising partner.
For nearly five decades, GLAZA assisted the zoo by funding exhibits, plant and animal species conservation, capital projects, and education and community outreach programs, according to the report.
“A community zoo needs consistent nourishment to flourish,” the report read. “For a zoo, besides significant volunteer participation, the nourishment is money.”
The jury noted that it is often a wealthy benefactor or nonprofit that generates that money, and for years the Los Angeles Zoo believed it had that in GLAZA.
“When that belief turned into litigation, our zoo’s future became imperiled,” the report read. “Its relationship with GLAZA now lies in ruins, crashed on the rocky shore of a major lawsuit” in L.A. County Superior Court.
In providing its recommendation, the jury suggested that the city look at other successful private-public partnerships, including the L.A. County Museum of Art and the Natural History Museum.
Each is run by a nonprofit with some of its leadership appointed by the county Board of Supervisors.
The Los Angeles Zoo, which houses more than 1,600 animals, has become dilapidated over the years. Exhibits for lions, bears, sea lions and pelicans have closed because they need major renovations. The last two elephants, Billy and Tina, were transferred last year to the Tulsa Zoo after decades of campaigning by animal rights advocates over living conditions and a history of deaths and health challenges. Animal rights groups had sought to have the elephants moved to a sanctuary.
The 59-year-old zoo, which occupies 133 acres in the northeast corner of Griffith Park, has struggled to maintain its national accreditation, with federal regulators finding peeling paint and rust in some exhibits.
U.S. Department of Agriculture inspectors and the Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums found a “critical lack of funding and staffing to address even the most basic repairs,” L.A. Zoo officials wrote in a budget document in November 2024.
The civil grand jury made similar notes when it visited the zoo as part of its probe.
“The Zoo is special, a community asset with naturalistic exhibits, conservation initiatives, animal interaction, and in-depth programming, providing such a meaningful experience takes money, lots of it,” the civil grand jury wrote in its report. “The City of Los Angeles today can no longer tolerate or sustain that burden on its budget.”
To safeguard the zoo’s legacy, the report recommended that the city begin looking for a new benefactor at least by April, in particular someone familiar with the public-private zoo partnership to assist with the transition.
Times staff writer Noah Goldberg contributed to this report.