Celebrity animal activist Bob Barker’s visit to Toronto to push for the release of the Toronto Zoo’s elephants comes as city officials are still divided on the issue.

“It’s time to retire them and send them down south to a sanctuary so they can enjoy their sunset years,” Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker, a zoo board member, said Friday at a City Hall gathering with Barker.

“Times are changing, standards are changing and the zoo has to change,” De Baeremaeker told reporters, noting that a year or two ago he was the lone voice on the board pushing for the animals to go.

De Baeremaeker said he wants the animals moved to California by the fall.

Councillor Raymond Cho, also a zoo board member, said he remains neutral on the issue of retiring the elephants. However, he acknowledged there seems to be momentum in that direction on the board.

“It may shift to letting the elephants go. That’s my intuition,” Cho said.

Barker says he wants to see the elephants sent to a large sanctuary in California called PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society).

But Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby, another board member who is awaiting the recommendation from zoo staff on the issue before making up her mind, said she’s concerned that PAWS is not accredited by the widely recognized Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

And she worries about what will happen at the Toronto Zoo once the animals leave.

“I’m an animal lover, but I have grave concerns about the question of what is a zoo without the elephants,” Lindsay Luby said.

Councillors Josh Colle, Mark Grimes and Paul Ainslie all say they want to wait for the staff report before deciding.

When asked what he thought of Barker’s visit and call for the elephants to be released from Toronto, Mayor Rob Ford said Friday: “That’s up to the zoo board. Obviously if elephants are being hurt or dying in these conditions, you know I don’t want to see any animals die. But we’ve had elephants up here for a long, long time so I’d have to see a pretty strong argument to move them out.”

Barker, former host of the TV game show The Price is Right, told a news conference earlier Friday that cities like Toronto are too cold and their zoos too small for elephants.

“They’ll be far healthier at a sanctuary,” said Barker, who is in town to press zoo officials to send their three remaining elephants to the sanctuary.

“Arthritis in this climate undoubtedly causes a lot of pain” for these animals, he said.

Seven elephants have died at the zoo since 1984.

Barker is in Toronto with a contingent that includes members of the animal protection group Zoocheck Canada, and Ed Stewart, the founder of PAWS.

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Stewart estimated it would cost less than $100,000 to move all three elephants to his sanctuary.

PAWS’s 930 hectares are home to eight elephants sent from zoos in San Francisco, Detroit, Milwaukee, Anchorage and from circuses.

Barker has said he’d donate his own money to help move the Toronto elephants — Toka, Thika and Iringa — though he’s declining to specify the exact amount.

The chair of the Toronto Zoo board is open to Barker’s offer.

“If we go down that road, I’m sure we won’t say no to help,” from Barker or anyone else, Joe Torzsok said Thursday.

Renovations could run between $20 million and $40 million to upgrade the enclosure, a significant consideration for the cash-strapped zoo, Torzsok said.

The zoo has a May 12 deadline to decide what to do with the animals after reviewing staff recommendations and consultants’ reports.

The reports explore the pros and cons of phasing out the elephant enclosure as the animals die off, moving them now to a sanctuary, or upgrading the enclosure and bringing in elephants from other places.

Meanwhile, a recently released survey of Toronto Zoo visitors has found that while elephants are among the most popular attractions, even without them, 85 per cent of 800 visitors surveyed last summer said they would still attend the zoo.

Barker and animal activists want the elephants replaced with a science-centre type elephant display with educational videos and activities.

With files from Dave Rider