Pandas in SF: Mayor London Breed approved to solicit $25 million in donations

Mayor London Breed has gotten approval from city officials to move ahead with her plan to seek philanthropic funds to pay for San Francisco's new giant panda enclosure .

Why it matters: The move, which Breed says will ensure it's not funded by taxpayers' money, comes as the San Francisco Zoo faces increasing scrutiny over its ability to properly care for the pandas.

Driving the news: The Board of Supervisors voted 9-2 Tuesday to approve a resolution allowing the city to solicit private donations to cover costs for a panda enclosure and other zoo upgrades.

• Breed has set a $25 million fundraising goal and will be required to maintain a public list of donors. Potential sponsors identified by her office include United Airlines, Google, Meta and PG&E.
• In San Francisco, officials and staff are usually restricted in their ability to solicit private funds so as to prevent conflicts of interest with entities that do business with the city.

State of play: A U.S. zoo typically pays China about $1 million per year for two pandas, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service . That money goes toward China's conservation efforts.

• Owned by the city and county of San Francisco, the SF Zoo is operated by the nonprofit San Francisco Zoological Society, which relies on private donations, admission fees and city funding to oversee care for over 2,000 animals.
• Its operating expenses totaled more than $23 million for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

Friction point: A petition signed by over 7,200 people opposing the fundraising plan — and backed by animal welfare groups who have expressed concerns about conditions at the zoo — was submitted ahead of the board's meeting this week.

• The letter, which now has over 11,100 signatures, argues that bringing in pandas will divert critical resources from the zoo's existing animals.
• Incidents animal advocates have decried include when tiger escaped her enclosure and killed a teenager in 2007, a squirrel monkey was abducted from his cage in 2011 and a baby gorilla died in 2015 after being crushed by a hydraulic door .
• An April report published by the San Francisco Chronicle also detailed previously unknown incidents : last year, a grizzly bear escaped its enclosure after a door was left open and a penguin was killed by a guillotine door.
• The Zoological Society has since opened an internal investigation .

The other side: The zoo did not return a request for comment, but previously released a statement stating in part that "concerns about our zoo's conditions are unfounded."

• It also noted that regulatory bodies oversee regular independent inspections of enclosures and exhibit spaces.

What's next: The city will develop a fundraising timeline and is working with engineers from the Beijing Zoo to construct the panda enclosure.

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