Bob Barker funds elephant move & new PETA HQ

LOS ANGELES–-The Performing Animal Welfare Society on March 23,  2012 disclosed that former television game show host Bob Barker has donated $870,000 to fund the relocation of three African elephants from the Toronto Zoo to the PAWS Ark 2000 sanctuary in San Andreas,  California.  Barker agreed to fund the transfer in December 2011,  after the Toronto City Council voted to close the zoo’s elephant exhibit.
“Since 1984,  seven elephants have died at the zoo,  four within the past four years.  The oldest was 41,”  reported Linda Diebel of the Toronto Star.
The impending transfer is bitterly opposed by members of the Toronto Zoo staff.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals on March 8,  2012 staged a “red carpet, all-vegan, dog-friendly grand opening” of a new West Coast headquarters named after Barker on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles,  Associated Press reported. Barker, donated $2.5 million toward renovating the building.
Barker,  88,  retired in 2007 after 50 years of hosting game shows including The Price Is Right.  The Price is Right prize lineup on February 1,  2012 included an expense-paid trip to the Calgary Stampede Rodeo.  “I am very sorry that The Price is Right producers have chosen to align themselves with an activity that is cruel and violent,”  Barker responded in a statement released by Showing Animals Respect & Kindness.   “Rodeo does not honor western heritage in the U.S.,  Canada or anywhere else.  Rodeos torment,  injure and kill animals,”  Barker continued.  “I hope The Price is Right decision makers will immediately reassess their very bad decision.”
Barker in January 2010 donated $1 million to SHARK in support of the ongoing SHARK campaign against pigeon shoots in Pennsylvania and North Carolina.  The funding enabled SHARK to initiate surveillance of pigeon shoots using drone helicopter camera platforms.  Also in January 2010,  Barker donated $5 million to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society,  used to purchase the Sea Shepherd vessel now named The Bob Barker,  and a shipboard helicopter named The Nancy Burnett. Barker has previously funded animal studies and animal rights law programs with $1 million donations to the University of Virginia,  Harvard,  Columbia,  Northwestern,  Duke, Stanford,  Georgetown,  UCLA,  and his alma mater,  Drury University in Springfield  Missouri.