I'm not an animal rights whacko but I do like elephants. :)
Keep in mind that Barker's main point was that the new enclosure would be too costly, not that it was not sufficient. I like elephants too. I think these elephants would do a lot more good as ambassadors to some inner-city kid than they would in a retirement home in the middle of nowhere. No zoo is complete without a lion, a giraffe, a hippo and an elephant.