Maggie is a female African elephant. She was born in southern Africa 1982 and came to the Alaska Zoo in September 1983, after her family was culled. There she lived together with Annabelle, an adult Asian elephant who had come to Anchorage in 1966. It is said that Maggie and Annabelle never came along very well. In 1997 Annabelle, 33 years old,  was euthanized due to foot problems. Since that, Maggie is the only elephant in Alaska.

Will poor Maggie also die of the 'zoo foot rot' as her friend did years ago?

What horror could be next though, to get another elephant to suffer with her?

Because of the extreme weather of Anchorage Alaska, Maggie, an African elephant born in the wild, is forced to spend 5 months out of every year standing endlessly on cold cement in a barn!  Away from natural substrate and free growing vegetation, away from herd bonding and nurturing, away from miles of walking and exercise, away from playing in her pond splashing with other elephants basking in the warm sun....Please help Maggie

Maggie is the only elephant in Anchorage since Annabelle died. She is the only female African elephant in a north American zoo to live alone.

Alaska is well-known for its cold, long winters. Elephants origin from tropical and subtropical regions and are not well adjusted to ice and snow. Information from the Anchorage Zoo indicate that Maggie can leave her heated barn only for short periods of time when temperatures drop under 40 degrees. This means Maggie is confined indoors for at least 5 months a year.

1. Maggie is alone

Elephants are highly social animals and form life-long bonds with each other. Female elephants live in close knit family groups of related elephants, consisting of mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters and cousins. While male offsprings leave the group when they reach adulthood, females stay in the family forever. Each family is lead by the oldest, most experienced female, the matriarch, and all family members support each other by raising their offspring. To learn more about the amazing family life of elephants, visit the homepage of the elephant research project in Amboseli National Park/Kenya: http://www.elephantvoices.org/index.php?topic=why_comm

For this reasons, it is cruel to keep female elephants alone. Even the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA) whose standards regarding elephants are highly Insufficient, recommends keeping female elephants in groups no smaller then three!

Maggie whereas is alone. This has the consequence that her emotional needs are not satisfied; and she suffers from loneliness and horrible boredom because she has no other elephants to bond and interact with.

 ...hard concrete floor, at times in chains, very sad Maggie

Elephants are not only very social, but also highly intelligent animals. They need plenty of stimulation to stay emotionally healthy. Otherwise, boredom and neurotic behaviour as swaying and head-bobbing are the sad consequences - the elephant is bored to (her  souls) death.

Elephants need not only mental stimulation and the company of other elephants, they also need plenty of exercise to stay physically healthy. Elephants need to walk many miles on a natural surface every day to wear their nails and pads down and to keep their joints healthy. If elephants are instead forced to stand on concrete for extended periods, painful foot problems like abscesses, foot rot and arthritis are the consequences. These incurable diseases are the main death cause among the captive elephant population!

The Alaska Zoo already had to euthanize one elephant because of foot problems 1997 – Maggie's former companion Annabelle.

Meet two Sanctuary elephants, Lota and Misty, the difference from Maggie is in their eyes:

The solution for Maggie is easy: she must be transferred to the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee as soon as possible. The Sanctuary, founded by Carol Buckley and Scott Blais in 1994, is currently home of 12 other elephants rescued from zoos and circuses. The African elephant area at the Sanctuary includes a new, state of the art barn and more then 300 acres of natural habitat – forests, pastures, mud wallows and ponds – where the elephants can roam free day and night, feeding from the natural vegetation and socializing with other African elephants, as wild elephants would do! This is something that no zoo can offer. For more information about this wonderful place, please visit www.elephants.com.

 CLICK HERE TO SEE THE:

 ( WE ARE NOT AFFILIATED WITH THE ELEPHANT SANCTUARY IN TENNESSEE,

BUT DO SUPPORT THEM AS THE BEST PLACE TO SEND MAGGIE )

1. “No one can know if Maggie would be happier elsewhere”

After all what we know today about elephants, it is clear that Maggie's most important needs are not satisfied in the Anchorage Zoo: She is alone, and she is confined in her barn for around 5 months a year. She cannot be “content and happy”. But if she would live at the sanctuary, she had what elephants need to thrive – plenty of space, natural vegetation, and most important the company of other elephants. Ask yourself if we don't know where she would be happier!

2. “The Alaska Zoo is the only home Maggie has ever known”

This is yet untrue because Maggie's true and first home were the grasslands of Zimbabwe, where she lived with her family. Correct is indeed that she lives now in the Anchorage Zoo for more then 20 years and is used to that environment. But the Elephant Sanctuary has proven in the past that even elephants that lived in one zoo for 20, 30 or even 45 years adjust surprisingly quick and easy to “sanctuary life”. For more information visit the homepage of the Elephant Sanctuary and read the stories of Bunny, Winkie, Sissy, Shirley, Tange and Zula and all the others who are thriving at the Sanctuary: http://www.elephants.com/bios.htm

3. “Maggie has a history of not getting along with other elephants”

At the Anchorage Zoo, Maggie never had a chance to live in a healthy social environment in a herd with other African elephants – her only companion was the Asian female Annabelle. Annabelle herself was alone before Maggie arrived and never lived in a social herd. It is not surprising that these two did not came along very well – Annabelle had never learned how to relate with other elephants, and when two elephants who are strangers are put together in a small enclosure, problems are preassignated: elephants are highly social, but space and time is needed to introduce two elephants to each other, more then ever when one of them has never been together with other elephants. In a normal sized zoo yard, elephants can´t go each other out of sight if they want to spend some time alone, and they can´t decide themselves when they are ready to meet each other. The Elephant Sanctuary has proven many times that elephants with so-called “behaviour problems” and those who lived many years or even their hole life alone can be integrated in a herd – assumed they are given space and time. There is no reason why Maggie should be an exception.

And even IF she should not make friends with the other elephants – the African elephant habitat has more then 300 acres, more then enough space for the elephants to avoid each other´s company!

3. “The people of Anchorage and her keepers are her family”

It is said that Maggie has a close relationship with her keeper Rob. But humans can never replace the company with other elephants. The reason is simple: Humans are not elephants!

And the argument that the zoo visitors were Maggie´s family is nothing ridiculous. Zoo visitors don´t have personal contact with Maggie, they are strangers for her.

4. “A treadmill will satisfy her need of more exercise”

The Anchorage Zoo has decided to spend 100,000 $ to build Maggie “the world´s largest treadmill”. This would be a first – a treadmill for elephants does not yet exist, and no one knows if it will work. And it will not solve Maggie´s problem: she needs to live together with other African elephants, and she needs exercise in a natural habitat to avoid standing for long hours concrete. The “treadmill idea” is a waste of money. The zoo should better use the money for its other animals.

5. “Maggie connects “people with animals”

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The main argument of all zoos to keep elephants in substandards facilities is always “education” and “connecting people with animals”. But it has nothing to do with education to exhibit a single elephant in the snow or in a concrete barn. Wild elephants live in big family groups with 10-30 members and in a subtropical climate. Zoo visitors who see Maggie get a wrong picture of elephants and don´t learn anything about their true nature - movies about wild elephants are a much better tool for education then an elephant in Alaska! If the Alaska Zoo wants to “connect people with animals”, they should do this with native animals who can deal with ice and snow.  

6. “We owe the people of Alaska the right to see an elephant”

This is the true reason why the Alaska Zoo does not want to send Maggie to another facilitiy – Maggie is their prime attraction and guarantees visitors. Can this justify animal cruelty? A zoo visitor enjoys seeing Maggie for 10 minutes, she suffers 24 a day.

VI. What elephant experts say

Dr. Ron Kagan, director of the Detroit Zoo:

"A lone elephant is clearly not a good thing. The fact that she's without elephant companionship - we shouldn't fool ourselves that somehow humans are the equivalent. I'd say that's a very challenged elephant."[1]

Ann Duncan, Detroit Zoo chief veterinarian:

"Every winter we have more problems, which is why we wanted to move them out of Michigan in the first place. They (Winky and Wanda, the two elephants from the Detroit Zoo) have both developed new foot problems in the last few weeks."[2]

Mike Keele, deputy director of the Oregon Zoo and chairman of the elephant species survival program for the American Zoo and Aquarium Association:

"People use treadmills. I guess it's an interesting concept. But I'm not sure what the message is - for visitors to come up and see an elephant on a treadmill and somehow make a connection with nature? That's a tough one for me."[3]

Kelly McGrath, spokesperson of the Lincoln Park Zoo:

"Wankie (the lone elephant in the Lincoln Park Zoo) will either have to leave the zoo or we will have to get more elephants, because she has to be in a social situation. Elephants are extraordinarily social animals."[4]

Joyce Pool, elephant researcher with more then 20 years of experience with wild elephants in Kenya:

“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.

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 labelled anthropomorphic. We know too much about elephants. The argument simply isn't relevant.”[5]

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[1]&[3] From: "A 9,000-Pound Fish Out of Water, Alone in Alaska", The New York Times, January 9th, 2005, by Sarah Kershaw.

[2] "Wanda, Winky wait out winter", The Daily Tribune, January 10th, 2005, by Christy Strawser.

[4] "Huge loss for Lincoln Park - Lincoln Park Zoo puts to rest Peaches, a 55-year-old African elephant, leaving it with a solitary pachyderm", The Chicago Tribune, January 19th, 2005, by William Mullen.

[5] Keynote Address to the 22nd Annual Elephant Managers Workshop, Presented by Disney's Animal Kingdom.

November 9 - 12, 2001.

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