Pachyderms on a plane: Bob Barker's $880,000 elephant flight to a CA sanctuary

Photo by Simczuk / Kasia via Flickr Creative Commons

Dumbo is about to have some company in the air.

Three elephants are preparing to take flight aboard a private plane financed by longtime animal advocate and occasional Echo Park visitor, Bob Barker.

According to a spokesperson, the 88-year-old activist and television icon offered to fund the $880,000 plane ride after learning that one of the massive creatures was not healthy enough for truck transit due to a serious foot problem.

The Plinko master will travel the pachyderms -- Thika, Iringa and Toka --from their current home at the Toronto Zoo to a California sanctuary, The Performing Animals Welfare Society, that Barker described as "paradise."

"To think that one of them might not survive the trip in a truck touched my heart and purse strings," he said.

Previously in elephants: Orange County Fair ends elephant rides after a quarter century over liability, safety

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