Memorial Today: One-Year Anniversary of Elephant Death at SF Zoo
Local Residents Remember Calle’s Premature Death and Celebrate Transfer of Last Elephant at SF Zoo to Sanctuary This Week

 
San Francisco -- In Defense of Animals (IDA), Citizens for Cruelty-Free Entertainment and local residents will gather today at the San Francisco Zoo to commemorate Calle’s untimely death one year ago today. Calle, a 37-year-old Asian elephant, was euthanized due to chronic and debilitating health problems caused by adverse zoo conditions. Less than two months after Calle died, Maybelle the 43-year-old African elephant at the Zoo died mysteriously and unexpectedly. On average elephants in U.S. zoos die at half their natural 70-year lifespan. Animal protection groups call upon zoos across the country to close their elephant exhibits and send the surviving elephants to the two sanctuaries in California and Tennessee that provide elephants lifelong care in a naturalistic environment.

What: Memorial for Calle 
When: Monday, March 7, 2005, 12:30 p.m.
Where: San Francisco Zoo (Sloat Avenue) at the front entrance in the parking area


IDA and Citizens For Cruelty-Free Entertainment applaud the San Francisco Board of Supervisors for taking action to establish the highest standards for elephant care in the country and sending the two surviving elephants, Tinkerbelle and Lulu, to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) sanctuary in San Andreas, California. Lulu is scheduled to be transferred to PAWS later this week. Tinkerbelle, the 38-year-old Asian elephant who lived for the past 37 years at the San Francisco Zoo, has been at the PAWS facility for the past three months and currently suffers from painful foot disease and abscesses, arthritis and joint problems caused by the conditions at the Zoo.

Like the other elephants at the San Francisco Zoo, Calle was a 1-to-2-year-old baby when she was captured and taken from her mother and family in the wild. She was then shipped to the U.S. and forced to perform in circuses before being sent to Los Angeles Zoo. In 1997, Los Angeles Zoo shipped her to San Francisco Zoo after she injured a keeper. 

Like the majority of elephants kept in zoos, Calle’s foot and health problems are attributed to urban zoo conditions that prevent normal exercise and social development for elephants while forcing them to stand on hard, compacted surfaces that exacerbate the joint and leg problems. 

Available at the memorial will be medical records that document Calle’s suffering and video of Calle.