Zoos throughout the state would have to expand their elephant enclosures or close them by 2009, under a proposed state law that would set standards for the treatment of elephants housed in zoos.

The San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park just outside Escondido are among the facilities that would be affected by the proposal, Assembly Bill 3027. Assemblyman Lloyd Levine (D-Van Nuys) introduced the bill in the Legislature Feb. 24.

The Wild Animal Park and zoo are operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego and have three elephant enclosures between them. After Levine held a press conference this week to promote his bill, the Zoological Society released a statement saying the organization believes decisions about the size of elephant exhibits are best left to animal care experts.

"Although basic animal welfare standards are useful and of great value, it is important to recognize that detailed restrictions regarding animal care and husbandry may serve to create situations where the care of individual animals (bearing unique medical, psychological or social needs) is compromised," the statement said.

Also known as the Elephant Protection Act, Levine's bill would require outdoor elephant yards to include at least five acres for up to three pachyderms. The enclosures would have to provide an additional half acre for each elephant housed in the exhibit, under the bill.

That requirement concerns the San Diego zoological society.

The Wild Animal Park has two exhibits that house African and Asian elephants separately. Eight African elephants -- including one adult male, six adult females and a 2-year-old male calf -- share a 3-acre enclosure, said spokeswoman Yadira Galindo. The proposed law would require a 7-1/2 acre enclosure.

The park's Asian elephant exhibit is 3 acres shared by six elephants, one male and five adult females, Galindo said. AB 3027 would require a 6-1/2 acre enclosure.

The San Diego Zoo's sole elephant exhibit is a 1-acre enclosure that houses three adult females, Galindo said. That exhibit would need to be expanded five times its current size.

AB 3027 supporters are particularly concerned about the Wild Animal Park because the park is promoted as a humane facility with enclosures much larger than those at many zoos, Levine aide Crystal Strait said Friday. However, wild elephants traditionally walk 12 to 50 miles per day -- an activity that dislodges dirt and other impediments that otherwise could cause foot infections and other problems, Strait said.

"They are being kept in very, very tight quarters considering their size," she said about the park's elephants.

Strait said her boss wrote the bill after meeting with animal welfare advocates, a former elephant curator at the Detroit Zoo and the director of the Los Angeles Zoo. The Detroit Zoo closed its elephant exhibit and sent two aging elephants that lived there to an elephant sanctuary last year.

That move was part of a national trend, with a handful of zoos across the country either sending their elephants to sanctuaries or considering whether to close their elephant exhibits. And in Los Angeles, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ordered a study last summer into whether the local zoo should be forced to send its three elephants, Billy, Gita and Ruby, to a sanctuary; the study's results are expected to be released soon.

Strait said Levine recognizes the educational value of elephant exhibits but concluded that minimum space standards need to be set to ensure the animals are housed in humane environments.

"We're not saying that people need to shut the exhibit down," Strait said. "We're saying that if you're going to have elephants, you need to have a humane habitat for that."

The American Zoo and Aquarium Association, the national organization that accredits zoos, released a statement Wednesday that described the proposed space requirements as "arbitrary, not based on science or research."

"We believe that these changes are another attempt by animal rights activists to effectively ban elephants from zoos today, and then ban other species, such as giraffe, lions and penguins, from zoos tomorrow," the association's statement said.

Levine's bill also would amend the state Penal Code to set space standards for elephants in traveling displays. A minimum of 1,800 square feet would be required for an elephant, plus an additional 900 square feet for each additional elephant.

Those space standards mirror space standards that the American Zoo and Aquarium Association has set for elephant enclosures at zoos.

Contact staff writer Andrea Moss at (760) 739-6654 or amoss@nctimes.com.