Controversial deal to bring pandas to San Francisco Zoo is off
The struggling zoo has continued to pursue a panda program since 2024, despite the huge costs involved, and repeated warnings from animal welfare charities and government inspectors alike.
San Francisco Zoo’s controversial plan to import two giant pandas from China is off, after the zoo declared a fiscal emergency.
Negotiated in 2024, the deal – worth $25 million – meant that San Francisco would be among just three American zoos to house pandas, joining San Diego and the Smithsonian, in Washington, DC.
However, hopes that these much sought-after animals might reverse SF Zoo’s ailing fortunes, after years of scandal and instability, proved ill-judged.
The animal welfare groups, In Defense of Animals, SF Zoo Watch, and Panda Voices received almost 14,000 signatures calling for the deal to be scrapped. Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 Species Unite supporters urged the zoo to cancel its planned panda acquisition.
In addition, a damning report by the Joint Zoo/Recreation and Parks Committee “highly recommended” that pandas should not be sent to SF Zoo. Conducted in August 2024, the report found that many of the enclosures are “extremely outdated” and unsuitable.
Notably, the orangutans reside in a 100-year-old concrete circle that is just 10x10, and the koala enclosure can only hold one koala at a time, meaning the other two koalas must stay inside. The giraffe enclosure lacks running water, while the gorilla habitat is prone to flooding. Several animals have been housed for years in what were supposed to be ‘temporary’ enclosures, as several infrastructure projects faced delays or went unfinished.
“The arrival of the giant pandas would make the already poor situation of the current animals living at the zoo even worse, diverting attention and resources away from doing basic repairs and building exhibits for other animals,” noted the report.
Worse still, the pandas would be housed in a 90-year-old facility, the night quarters of which is within sight and smell of African lions. This, the report said, showed “a lack of knowledge about the species,” as pandas are highly sensitive to smell and noises, and so cannot be housed near predators.
Pandas are also extremely expensive to look after, which is why Ähtäri Zoo in Finland recently returned their two pandas. The zoo had agreed with China to keep Lumi and Pyry for fifteen years, but rising costs and debt meant sending them back half-way through the contract, in 2024. At €1.5m a year, the pandas' upkeep was “more than all the other species combined,” said the zoo.
And Memphis Zoo sent its two pandas, YaYa and LeLe, back to China, after a campaign by In Defense of Animals and Panda Voices highlighted ongoing concerns over their welfare. Shortly before their scheduled return, LeLe collapsed and died in February 2023.
There were genuine fears that a similar tragedy could happen at SF Zoo. It already holds the grim record of being the only Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited zoo to see one of its animals escape and kill a visitor, following Tatiana the tiger’s attack in 2007.
The zoo’s new CEO, Tanya Peterson – appointed in 2008 – proved unpopular with staff and, in the past two years, faced mounting calls to resign, including from government watchdogs, civic leaders, and Mayor Daniel Lurie. Peterson eventually stepped down in August.
However, SF Zoo continues to suffer big losses. Last year, it posted a $6 million operating loss and over $5 million loss in net assets. Attendance is still 40 percent below pre-2019 levels, down another 11 percent last year alone, according to SF Zoo Watch.
Bold new plans were put forward earlier this year, which would change the venue entirely. EcoPark SF, a proposal shaped by locals and informed by a global team of veterinarians and conservationists, sets out to modernise the 100-acre space into a center of eco-education where environmental restoration initiatives meet family-friendly recreation.
Could this new EcoPark proposal replace San Francisco Zoo? A new plan sets out to transform the struggling zoo into a space of sustainability and awareness. Read more about the proposal here.
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