Bob Barker funds $880,000 elephant flight to CA

By Sandy Cohen

Associated Press

Published: Friday, March 23 2012 8:25 a.m. MDT

FILE - In this March 25, 2009 file photo, TV game show icon Bob Barker from "The Price is Right" is shown during an appearance at the CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles. The 88-year-old TV icon offered to fund the $880,000 flight after learning that one of the elephants wasn't well enough to withstand the long trip by truck, Barker spokesman Henri Bollinger said Friday March 23, 2012.

Damian Dovarganes, file, Associated Press

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Summary

Three elephants will travel from the Toronto Zoo to a sanctuary in California aboard a private plane, thanks to longtime animal activist Bob Barker.

LOS ANGELES — Three elephants will travel from the Toronto Zoo to a sanctuary in California aboard a private plane, thanks to longtime animal activist Bob Barker.

A spokesman for the 88-year-old TV icon says Barker offered to fund the $880,000 flight after learning that one of the elephants wasn't well enough to withstand the long trip by truck.

Henri Bollinger said Friday that the Toronto Zoo agreed to move Thika, Iringa and Toka to the Performing Animals Welfare Society elephant sanctuary in San Andreas, Calif., but that one of the animals suffers from "a serious foot problem."

Barker described the elephants' new home as a "paradise" and said "to think that one of them might not survive the trip in a truck touched my heart and purse strings."

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