For years, animal-rights advocates have pushed for the elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo to be moved to an animal sanctuary.

But in Southern California, even the elephants have celebrity backers. One in particular, Billy, has gotten some extra love from Cher.

“Billy doesn’t deserve this,” the singer said in an interview on Thursday. She says the 40-year-old pachyderm, who has been at the zoo since 1989, “has had a terrible life” in a restrictive enclosure, with minimal shade and hard ground that could damage his feet.

In recent months, the legal, political and zoological drama playing out over the fate of the zoo’s Asian elephants has escalated. After two aging members of the herd had to be euthanized, zoo officials announced in April that Billy and the only other surviving elephant, Tina, who is 59, would soon be relocated.

But instead of the sanctuary that Cher and other advocates wanted, officials said the elephants would be moved to another zoo in Tulsa, Okla., where they could join a larger herd. That has led to protests, a lawsuit, tense city meetings, anger at the zoo director and a legal declaration submitted by the pop icon on the elephants’ behalf.

The battle comes at a time when lawsuits from animal-rights advocates and the shrinking number of available animals have led more zoos to close their elephant enclosures. The Bronx Zoo has faced growing legal pressure to move its last two elephants to a sanctuary, and in 2023 the Oakland Zoo sent one of its elephants to a sanctuary in Tennessee after it was unable to find it a compatible companion.