Maggie update

Here is the chronology of updates for Maggie, an elephant recently moved from the Alaska Zoo to the Performing Animal Welfare Society's sanctuary in San Andreas.

November 17, 2007 Maggie's Walk on the Wild Side (includes a video of Maggie's stroll, which is truly amazing and wonderful to see. She and the other elephants are developing a close bond and she is clearly entranced with her new expansive habitat.



November 10th - Maggie is settling in nicely - are we surprised? Nope :) Elegals and human residents are bending over backwards to make Mags comfy in her new digs. It takes a village! (of beings who know elephants inside out and these would include elephants, natch!)
November 7th - Pat Derby has a wonderful update. Maggie and the gals are bonding well.
November 5th - Pat Derby has an update!

SAN ANDREAS, Calif. -- Maggie, a 25-year-old African elephant, checks out her new home at Performance Animals Welfare Society, or PAWS, after the journey from Anchorage, Alaska, to here on a Air Force C-17 Globemaster III Nov. 2. Maggie's trainers from the Alaska Zoo said the elephant handled the trip well and will stay at PAWS for several weeks to help her adjust to life in the sanctuary. (U.S. Air Force Photo by Tech. Sgt. Keith Brown) full story

November 10th - Maggie the elephant rescued from the Alaska zoo is settling in nicely at PAWS. Are we surprised? Nope :)

Elegals and human residents are bending over backwards to make Mags comfy in her new digs. It takes a village! (Of beings who understand elephants inside out and these would include elephants, natch!)

A message for the troglodytes in Alaska who barraged PAWS with whinemail

The Alaskans who are in an uproar about being asked to restrict their viewing time should consider the following:

The expense for caring for Maggie is enormous and PAWS is assuming this expense for Maggie’s entire life. Had Bob Barker, a PAWS benefactor, not stepped up to the plate, it’s unlikely the Alaska Zoo would have let her go. The cost of the elecam is being borne by PAWS.

That residents of Alaska would demand that PAWS allow them indeterminate viewing time, as if Maggie is their property, is offensive to say the least.

Maggie never belonged in Alaska in the first place. She is not the property of Alaskans but an individual in her own right who, thanks to PAWS and animal welfare advocates who fought for her, has a home in a suitable place.

While it’s nice that so many Alaskans are eager to see Maggie, if they want to support her, they’ll also support PAWS and kick in some money to pay for that elecam service.

After all, they were willing to pay to see Maggie in the Zoo! Watching Mags on the elecam entertains the viewer; it doesn’t support Maggie.

You'd think Alaskans would have learned something from Maggie's story but I can see, from some of the comments below the article, that it's still all about them. Many of these whiners are the same people who fought to keep Maggie in a jail cell for their own entertainment. Now that she's safe in a sanctuary, they demand viewing time as if she's still their captive. Story follows...

Watch Maggie all you like, PAWS representative says

OOPS: Alaskans swamped the sanctuary with protests after its request to limit Web site use.

By BETH BRAGG
bbragg@adn.com

Published: November 9, 2007
Last Modified: November 9, 2007 at 08:39 PM

Spend as much time as you want watching Maggie on the elephant cam at her new California home.

Three days after a notice went up on the Performing Animal Welfare Society's Web site asking visitors to limit their Maggie fixes to 20 minutes, PAWS is backing down.

They got mail. From Alaskans.

"We are exploring options for reducing our costs," elephant trainer Pat Derby said in a written statement issued Thursday.

"We certainly do not wish to curtail any enthusiasm for (Maggie's) activities at the sanctuary, especially from her many loyal friends and fans in Alaska."

Fat chance of that.

Maggie moved to the San Andreas elephant sanctuary last week. Since then, huge numbers of Alaskans have been watching her adjust to her new life -- so much so that PAWS feared soaring satellite costs.

Tamara Wilder, a PAWS director, said some Alaskans were upset by the notice.

"We want them to know they're welcome to access that camera for as long as they want," she said.

The sanctuary is installing a second Web cam to cover a heavily treed habitat beyond the elephant barn. The animals are now blocked from view by trees when they roam in that area, Derby said.

Meanwhile, Maggie continues her across-the-fence flirting with her four African barn mates: Ruby, Mara, 71 and Lulu. On Wednesday, she reached under the fence to swipe a tree branch from Ruby, according to an update at www.pawsweb.org.

Later, as the elephants settled into their barn stalls for the night, Maggie and Ruby roared at each other.

At one point, "Maggie, Lulu and Ruby were all running around in their separate stalls rumbling, trumpeting, urinating and defecating as wild elephants do when they are excited," says a written report on the Web site. "To add to the excitement, 71 and Mara, who were still outside, joined in the display creating a cacophony which reverberated over the hills. ...We humans who were part of the scene were partially deaf for the next hour."

Another elephant needs help

From the date it looks like the petition should have expired but apparently it's still good.

A PETITION TO FREE THE ELEPHANT SAMBA FROM THE CIRCUS WHERE HER LIFE IS UNBEARABLE.

It is routine in circuses for handlers to beat and scream at their wild captives. It's part of the "training" ritual. (Google Tom Frisco for an example. But not while you're eating lunch.)

Elephants (like other wildlife) aren't keen on performing tricks and wearing silly costumes. Beating them into submission is how circuses get them to do it. I'm not kidding. One (now reformed) handler beat an elephant over the head with axe handles for days.

Animal acts will only end when people stop buying tickets. In the meantime...

Signing takes a few seconds.

PAWS: Maggie Comes to San Andreas

Video by Mike Taylor

Click the play button to start. The video can also be watched on the full screen. Click icon at the far right of the bottom of the video for the options.

Maggie, a nearly 8,000-pound pachyderm who was the last of her species living in Alaska, has safely relocated to San Andreas.

In an unbelievable logistical maneuver, the U.S. Air Force, two cranes and two trucks helped Maggie make her journey to the Performing Animal Welfare Society’s Ark 2000 sanctuary in Calaveras County Friday.

This video, shot by Enterprise reporter Mike Taylor, follows Maggie as she first rolls into the 2,300-acre facility and eventually takes her first steps in the Mother Lode.

Also see Pat Derby's update on the PAWS' web site.

Maggie is moving

from this existence:


to this:


After years of living alone in conditions* pictured above (first photo), the Alaska Zoo has agreed to move Maggie, a captive African elephant, to the Performing Animal Welfare Sanctuary (PAWS) in San Andreas, California. The news is posted on the Friends of Maggie website.

There she will share a large habitat with three African elephant gals named 71, Lulu, and Mara.

This decision was made easy for the zoo, thanks to the generosity of Bob Barker who offered to donate $100,000 to the zoo to do with as they wish, and another $750,000 to PAWS for the ongoing care of Maggie. Bob has long been a supporter of PAWS and a fierce advocate for captive wildlife. (My guess is the Price was Right for the zoo! The pressure's been on the zoo for years to move her and they've refused to budge before now.)

Bob Barker's announcement on YouTube.


The state of Maggie in the Alaska zoo:
- Living alone is detrimental to the well being of elephants. They are social, highly complex creatures. In the wild they live in herds and have bond groups. Maggie has been without elephant companions for years.
- Living in a climate that forces her to be indoors for up to nine months of every year. The indoor life means a cement cell with only a few toys and, in Maggie's case, a treadmill for exercise. (Yes, the zoo spent thousands of dollars on a goddamn treadmill thinking that would do the trick. Maggie refused to use it. She has never used it.)

Life will soon be very different, Maggie. Relief from arthritis (caused by standing on hard floors), no more pressure wounds, no more bobbing and swaying, now more rubbing your flesh against concrete until it bleeds, no more grinding your tusks to stumps on a brick wall. No more despair and frustration. No more loneliness. (Oh, and no treadmills, just trails!)

* What you see in this photograph is typical of zoo life for most captive elephants, and indeed most captive wildlife all over the world. Many zoos still operate as if it's the nineteenth century, stuffing animals in inadequate spaces to be exhibited to the public. Although zoos now use the language of conservation and education to market their "product" and their breeding programs, they are first and foremost a business. Not surprisingly, most zoos do not make a lot of money - some barely break even. Most either cannot afford - or are unwilling to spend - what it takes to create a suitable environment for captive wildlife, and they always put the needs and interests of their human visitors first. Genuine sanctuaries are viable alternatives. (Note: unfortunately, some outfits are exploiting the Sanctuary label to make a buck. For example: the Scott Riddle "school of elephant management" in Arkansas. Riddle has a long history of cruelty toward elephants. If an organization is not recognized by TAO, it's probably not a sanctuary. Buyer beware!)

I'd like to add that many people who work with animals in these conditions often see nothing wrong with them and believe they are being kind and loving. I've met many zoo keepers and volunteers who genuinely love the animals in their care. (Most are powerless to do anything to change the conditions and merely do their best). What boggles my mind is anyone defending this as a way of life for an elephant. I'm appalled every time I hear someone claiming this is a loving or even an adequate environment when all the evidence screams it is the opposite. We wouldn't treat our dogs and cats this way but think nothing of throwing a huge wild animal in what is virtually a prison cell for its entire life. Who does the cage serve and benefit? Certainly not the animal.

Humans can be very strange and scary sometimes.

If someone put me in a cage and told me it was his or her way of loving me, that it was good for me I'd want to kill myself.

A big smoochy kiss to Bob Barker

for his tireless efforts to rescue elephants!

Come on, Alaska Zoo. This is a no-brainer. Release Maggie to PAWS now. (permanent news link)

Why zoos deprive elephants of trees

In the wild, elephants depend on trees for shelter, shade and food. Trees also make handy scratching posts.

The next time you visit an elephant zoo exhibit, check to see whether trees are included, and I don't mean on the periphery where the elephant can't reach or have contact with them. Many elephant exhibits do not include trees because of the risk of damage. I've mentioned the asinine practice before. For example, Tina spent 35 years living in a dreary treeless yard that didn't even have grass. Hers was the most boring space imaginable and it was completely lacking in shade. If she needed shelter from the sun she had to go inside her dingy barn (something she was discouraged from doing during the day as it would deprive visitors who'd paid to see her). Likewise, the Hawthorn elephants were deprived of trees during the time John Cuneo owned them. He felt the elephants would "abuse" his "beloved" trees, so he wouldn't let them near a tree.

I found this little item today in the news. In lieu of shade trees, the Norfolk Virginia zoo has built a canopied misting station to keep their gals cool on summer days. It's a great contraption, one I'm sure the girls spend oodles of time in.

Elephant manager Jody Watkins said the girls are so excited about their $70,000 digs they’ve been coming inside late for dinner.

Other animals’ exhibits at the zoo have substantial shade from trees. But trees were not part of the original design of the elephant yard because of the damage elephants do to them.

I applaud the zoo for building the misting station and incorporating toys and ways to entertain and amuse their girls, but it seems ridiculous that elephants are deprived of trees by design. Ideally, an elephant habitat should not be a treeless "yard" but a richly diverse environment with hills and dales, tall grass, swimming pools (of the natural variety, not cement-bottomed atrocities), mud holes, and lots of trees. A misting station in the middle of all this would be nice, but hardly necessary.

The North Carolina Zoo is an example of what can be achieved for elephants.

Here's an old photo of Jenny (now deceased) communing with a tree at The Elephant Sanctuary near Hohenwald, Tennessee, where elephants and trees don't need permission. Prior to her arrival at the sanctuary Jenny lived the typical life of a circus elephant: chained in a cramped trailer for up to 18 hours a day when she wasn't performing under the "big top."

a poignant photo of Tina (who was deprived of contact with grass and trees until she lived at the Sanctuary).

Isn't she darling in her camisole of hay? Kisses, Angelkins.

In remembrance of Joanna Burke and Tina

Joanna gives Tina (a pachyderm I will always hold near and dear) some tender loving care at The Elephant Sanctuary near Hohenwald Tennessee.



They both passed on the same day in different years. Tina in 2004. Joanna in 2006.



A special memorial is planned to mark the anniversary of their deaths on July 21st at The Elephant Sanctuary.



May you together be in the happiest of places with all of the beings you both love and hold dear, those who have come and gone and are free. Know your work goes on and...we miss you.

Bravo, Joyce Poole

One of the most powerful, moving, and magnificent speeches I have ever read.

The next time somebody says (to me, as a certain somebody did recently): "But do you sacrifice the sanctity of the national parks in order to allow enough people come to love the wilderness? Do you sacrifice the quality of life for individual animals by keeping them in zoos where enough people can see them to WANT to protect them in the wild? At the end of the day, my answer is yes." I will point them to David Hancocks, architect and former director of the Seattle Zoo:

Today, zoos boast about their green revolution. The new zoos, sans cages, make visitors feel better, but it is all deception. The animals typically have no contact with living plants, separated from them by electric wires. Many "natural" features are made of disguised, unyielding concrete. The restricted dusty spaces the animals inhabit are often of no better quality than the old cages. Good zoos promote animal needs; in mediocre zoos they are the first to be compromised.

The simplistic aim of too many zoos is to attract hordes of visitors, to whom they offer non-organic, non-free-range food items, and entertain them by revealing little more than the size, shape, and colour of the animals.

Zoos often claim, however, to be conservation centres. But "conservation" for most zoos just means "breeding", which is merely basic zoo business: zoos must breed their animals to preserve their collections. Hardly any animals born in zoos are introduced to the wild.

They nonetheless loudly position themselves as leaders in wildlife conservation. In truth, government and non-government agencies are most successful in restoring habitat and reintroducing wild species. Zoos play an occasional minor role - and want all the glory.

and to Joyce Poole, who addressed the Elephant Manager's Association as follows:

Now to the tricky question that you would probably prefer not to ask me but as keynote speaker I am allowed to ask myself: What do I feel about elephants in zoos? I feel sad when I see elephants in zoos and I have seen a lot of sad elephants in zoos. On the basis of all I have learned about elephants my personal feeling is that those zoos that cannot provide a full social experience for elephants do not have the moral right to keep them. I don't feel that any of the zoos I have visited meet the standards that we should aspire to.

I would like to pose some questions to all of you. How many zoos today provide their elephants with a basic family unit? How many provide elephants with enough space? How many allow elephants the freedom to be themselves? These are some of the most basic elephant needs. How many use protected contact? Of those zoos with captive breeding programs, how many have thought about the long-term future of the elephants they produce? Do they have plans for the social, emotional and physical needs of the calves and mothers? Will they keep the calves with their mothers? Do they intend to form families and herds? Of zoos that have produced calves how many have kept those calves with their mothers? What provisions are there for the social needs of bulls in captive situations? How many of you have reflected on the emotional impact of the various invasive procedures you use?

I'm sure that you can give me a long list of reasons why things are done the way they are today, but I would argue that as long as elephants are confined in small spaces, behind bars, in barns, on chains, moved with electric prods and bull hooks, kept in socially deprived conditions, social misfits will be produced. You cannot raise intelligent, socially and emotionally complex beings under socially deprived and emotionally abused conditions and expect to produce normal individuals. It won't work. Your musth males will continue to kill people, and other elephants. Your females will kill people, and be unable to raise their own young. It is a vicious circle.

I know that everyone is trying their best to make things better for elephants in captivity and I am not blaming anyone for the situation that exists today; it is a product of our collective historical perspective on the acceptable treatment of animals. Society's views on animals have evolved extremely rapidly in the last few years and it isn't easy economically or conceptually to keep abreast of changing attitudes. But I would like to see a day in the future when a limited number of zoos in the country keep elephants and that these facilities allow elephants the freedom to be together in situations where they can interact in natural family groupings, where they can be allowed to mingle with males on occasion, to reproduce without artificial insemination and to care for their own calves in the context of their families. I think this concept will be difficult, but I do believe it is possible. And I challenge you as a group to think dynamically and move forward.

Anyone who has spent as many years as I have watching elephants in total freedom has a responsibility to say something about the way elephants should be treated. I don't have any reservations about saying that elephants are highly intelligent and that they have complex and deep emotions. We have moved way beyond worrying about being labeled anthropomorphic. We know too much about elephants. The argument simply isn't relevant.

I love what Joyce said about elephant emotions being an indisputable fact. That takes guts and I'm so glad she said it. Though people love their dogs and cats and feel bonded to them, many people continue to be uncomfortable with the idea that wild animals have emotions. But I guess empathizing might get in the way of our inhumane slaughter of food animals, our sport hunting and culling, our need to stroll to the local zoo with hordes of other humans to gawk at animals in cages. We wouldn't subject our precious pets to such a life, but see nothing wrong with imprisoning what we call "exotic" animals. And although we claim these exhibits educate and inspire empathy, we continue to call the human savages among us animals.

The more we learn about the lives of those we subjugate and harm the less comfortable we become. The discomfort is growing and spreading, thank God.

Memorial for Jenny

Since this is on Youtube, I thought I'd share it here even though Jenny passed last October.

Dear, sweet, triumphant Jenny. She was love on four great lovely legs, (one of them permanently injured by a circus).

Mud Spa

Dulary gets down!



Yes, Dulary appears to be enjoying Sanctuary life.



Dulary's old life documented here. Not a pretty picture.

Elephant sandwich

Rough and tumble Misty (center left) stands protectively close to Dulary (center right). They are fast becoming best friends. After all Misty's been through in the dreadful circus industry I could hug her to pieces. She's constantly joyful. Winkie and Sissy, another bonded pair, stand on either side.

It must be amazing to work and live with these animals.
All the news here.

Another pachyderm arrives in paradise

Asian elephant Dulary (left) is befriended by Tarra, the Elephant Sanctuary's first resident and official greeter of all newcomers, and the first Asian elephant Dulary has seen in over 40 years. The heartwarming story of Dulary's journey from zoo to sanctuary can be read here.

Dulary explores a fraction of her new 2700-acre world.

Here she'll find forest, pastures, hills, and a 25-acre lake where catfish jump and one beaver nests. She'll share this land with wild deer, coyotes and turkeys, rescued dogs and cats, and human caregivers whose sole purpose is looking after the animals who live here. She'll have access to a spacious, solar-heated barn filled with natural light whenever she decides she needs it. But for now, it seems, Dulary is content to sleep under the stars with her new family.

Kudos and then some to the Philadelphia zoo who listened and put the needs of their elephants first.

Smiles all around!

Photo and video (below) by Janice Clark

Well it finally happened. The last of the Hawthorn elephants are now free. Gypsy (right) and Nicholas (who is still a relative youngster) are now living at the Performing Animal Welfare Sanctuary in Galt and will soon be relocated to the PAWS' Ark2000 Sanctuary in San Andreas. There they will share a vast and beautiful home with five other freed Asian elephants: Winky, Wanda, Annie, Minnie, and Rebecca.
Updates, photos and videos here.
More of the story here.

Lota, you can relax now. Your tribe is free!

Gypsy and Nic playin' in mud, mud, glorious mud:

It's hard to imagine that these elephants were, until their rescue, living in a fetid windowless barn, chained up to 18 hours a day when they weren't performing in circus acts.