 By the 1970s , animal welfare organizations began to voice their increasing concern with the treatment of zoo animals and the conditions of their enclosures at the Central Park Zoo , the oldest zoo in the U.S. The <unk> Society of the United States , the Friends of the Zoo , and the Society for Animal Rights decried the prison @-@ like conditions of the <unk> and called for changes . The New York Zoological Society , which was responsible for creating realistic habitat enclosures at the Bronx Zoo , also began calling for changes and for Pattycake to be moved to another zoo . A renovation plan for the Central Park Zoo was approved in 1981 , with plans made to move the gorillas to larger spaces in other zoos . The New York Times reported that " the <unk> of these animals in inadequate spaces has long enraged animal lovers . " When the zoo was finally closed for renovations in 1982 , Pattycake was moved to the Bronx Zoo . 
