AR-News: Zoo euthanizes Calle after final controversy

[jim robertson]

Zoo euthanizes Calle after final controversy
Activists blamed for causing another elephant to push her down

Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer
  Monday, March 8, 2004

Calle the ailing elephant died at the San Francisco Zoo on Sunday morning, 
hours after another elephant attacked her -- an attack that zoo officials 
are blaming on animal rights demonstrators who they say agitated the beasts.

Zoo veterinarians quietly euthanized Calle, a 37-year-old female Asian 
elephant, at about 5 a.m., after she dropped to her belly and rolled on her 
side.

Zoo officials had said last week that Calle needed to be euthanized because 
her leg problems -- caused by degenerative joint disease and exacerbated by 
tuberculosis -- had left her barely able to stand. Then, Saturday afternoon, 
Tinkerbelle, a 38-year-old female companion to Calle, suddenly pushed Calle, 
who ended up collapsed on her belly and rear legs before she could recover 
and stand up, according to zoo officials.

The trauma of the attack worsened the condition, said senior veterinarian 
Freeland Dunker, and for the next 12 hours, Calle was given the pain 
reliever Demerol and injected with anti-inflammatories. But it wasn't 
enough.

In a statement released Sunday afternoon, zoo officials blamed animal rights 
protesters for agitating the elephants before the attack.

On Saturday, according to the zoo, "individuals from the animal rights 
community were present in front of the Asian elephant yard, where Calle and 
Tinkerbelle are located." In addition, zoo spokeswoman Nancy Chan said one 
activist -- Deniz Bolbol -- had trespassed into the zoo hospital with a 
television cameraman Friday and had harassed the staff, prompting the zoo to 
file a police report.

"We believe that the elephants sensed that there was something different 
going on from any other day and could sense that our keeper staff were 
feeling threatened as well," said Jacqueline Jencek, a zoo veterinarian.

More than 100 people were gathered Saturday afternoon outside the elephant 
yard, including many who had heard that Calle was soon going to be put down 
and wanted to say goodbye, when Tinkerbelle pushed Calle. Also there was 
Bolbol, a self-described animal advocate who, with a colleague, was taking 
pictures and video of Calle's feet as evidence that she was suffering in the 
zoo.

Bolbol dismissed the accusation that she agitated the elephants.

"They don't have the faintest idea about those elephants. ... Maybe 
(Tinkerbelle) wanted to get it caught on video," Bolbol said.

"Calle's dead because zoos can't properly care for elephants," she added.

Bolbol said the death of Calle shows that elephants do not have enough room 
to roam, nor proper weather conditions, at the San Francisco Zoo, which has 
three remaining pachyderms.

While acknowledging that zoos have been soul-searching for years about 
whether to keep elephants, San Francisco Zoo officials said the issue must 
be considered elephant by elephant. They said the debate isn't as relevant 
to the story of Calle -- who came to the zoo in 1997 with an injury to her 
left rear leg and soon was diagnosed with tuberculosis.

"We've all worked so hard with her," Jencek said. "The number of hours --

to have people come and belittle that is hard to take."

The 10,000-pound Calle had many claims to fame, including recording vocals 
for "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."

Calle, who was considered middle-aged for an elephant, had seen trouble 
before. A former traveling performer, she injured her left rear leg in a 
trailer accident in Mexico in the early 1990s. Veterinarians said she 
slipped and reinjured the leg in October, and since then she had not been 
lying down to rest -- probably because she did not want to push herself back 
up.

Calle came to San Francisco in 1997 to provide company for Tinkerbelle after 
Calle injured Los Angeles Zoo handler Ronald Rotter, breaking his collarbone 
and bruising his ribs and a knee.

The elephant's greatest contribution, veterinarians said, came when she 
refused to take pills after being diagnosed with tuberculosis. Dunker found 
a solution in cocoa butter suppositories that caught on at other zoos and 
saved other elephants' lives.

Dunker said the zoo will perform a necropsy this week after veterinarians 
are trained to wear Darth Vader-like masks to protect them from contracting 
tuberculosis. The procedure should help them learn more about treating 
tuberculosis in elephants, he said.

Tinkerbelle's fate has not been decided, Dunker said, but she will not be 
left alone. The zoo has not ruled out the possibility of bringing in another 
Asian elephant companion for her.

E-mail Demian Bulwa at dbulwa at sfchronicle.com.



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Compassion, in which all ethics must take root, can only attain its full 
breadth and depth if it embraces all living creatures and does not limit 
itself to humankind.
Dr. Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Prize winner

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