FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 4, 2007
ZOO PLAYS RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH MAGGIE'S HEALTH
Paul Joslin, Ph.D., a member of Friends of Maggie and former senior
administrator at Brookfield Zoo, Chicago, visited Maggie over the weekend
and found her appearance deeply troubling: "Her face looks gaunt and
haggard. You would think she was old if you didn't know she is in her
prime."
Although Maggie collapsed twice in mid-May, the zoo has been highly
secretive about which veterinarians with elephant experience it has
consulted.
Maggie's collapse caught the zoo by surprise. Lacking a medical emergency
plan, information, trained staff or equipment, the zoo turned to the
Anchorage Fire Department to save their elephant. Fire fighters searched the
internet to find information to help Maggie get back on her feet.
Friends of Maggie fears that her third collapse may be her last. The Board
is again considering Maggie's future at its meeting on Tuesday, June 5.
Whether the Board keeps Maggie or allows her to relocate, Friends of Maggie
believes she deserves to have her health restored under the presence and
supervision of at least one of the world's top specialists in elephant
veterinary care.
The attached photos show the raw areas on the left and right side of
Maggie's face, a frontal view looking older than her years (she is 25 and
has 30 or 40 more years to live), injuries to the right and left front legs,
the cracked undersides of her feet, the loose skin hanging from the
underside of her abdomen seen from both sides suggesting that she is
underweight, her enlarged teats (being in her prime, she is cycling right
now), a view of her fondling her teats probably as a result of her cycling,
her going to ridiculous lengths to reach grass at the maximum length of her
trunk, a back end view showing her blocky loose skin, another facially
haggard look, and a photo of her tiny indoor enclosure with a sand pile at
one end to lean into should she collapse again. Joslin took these photos on
Saturday, June 2nd. The email following shows her five years ago, when she
was not haggard and thin, but overweight. It also shows her grinding her
tusks to nubbins against the concrete walls during her annual indoor
confinement for months at a time.
Contact: Paul Joslin, (907) 250 5944; paul@mcneilbears.org