A friend recently told me a rather sad story and asked if I could help. This story is about Lucy, a female Asian elephant that started her life in the wild in Sri Lanka. Captured as a baby and shipped half-way round the world to end up in the freezing climes of Canada on permanent display at the Edmonton Valley Zoo, owned and operated by the City of Edmonton.
Lucy has been at the zoo since 1977 and for much of that time she has been living alone. Elephants, highly social and intelligent animals, live in family communities comprised of relatives. Lucy is one of the very few elephants living alone in a North American zoo. Zoocheck and PETA want Lucy moved to better living conditions where she will have more space, better outdoor access in a warmer climate, elephant companionship and also have her chronic health problems addressed.
Lucy's enclosure is approximately 0.5 acres (or 0.002 square kilometres) in size, roughly tens of thousands of times smaller than the range Lucy would have had in the wild. Her indoor space is close to 200,000 times smaller. According to the Coalition for Captive Elephant Well-Being, elephants in captivity should have enough space to travel at least 10km (6.2 miles) on a daily basis while engaged in natural behaviors like foraging, feeding, exploring, and socializing.
The brutally cold Edmonton weather is also taking its toll on an animal that would normally live in a tropical climate. Lucy is kept in her small barn area when the weather gets below -10°C (14F). Based on a review of weather data from Environment Canada, Zoocheck estimates that Lucy is kept inside her barn as much as 76% of the time.
Aside from her stark living conditions, Lucy has been plagued with health problems on and off for more than twenty years, including foot infections, rheumatoid arthritis, respiratory problems, colic, obesity and stereotypical stress behaviours. Lucy spends much of her day inactive and engaging in stress behaviors (called stereotypies) rocking and stepping back and forth.
Efforts to find a solution to Lucy’s situation have not been successful and attorney Clayton Ruby, on behalf of PETA and Zoocheck, recently initiated legal action against the city of Edmonton to seek enforcement of Alberta's Animal Protection over the conditions under which Lucy is forced to live at Edmonton's Valley Zoo—conditions that the groups say are cruel and unlawful.
Lucy is only one of the many animals living in inadequate or cruel captive conditions around the world. What makes Lucy different or special is that someone noticed her suffering and decided to do something about it. That initial connection with Lucy has since grown to a much larger campaign involving numerous animal rights group, celebrity activist Bob Barker, people around the world trying to help Lucy, an increasingly stubborn Edmonton Mayor and Council, and now legal proceedings.
Amongst all of the legal wrangling, press conferences, denials and posturing, one thing is certain – this elephant named Lucy is not thriving and judging by numerous first hand accounts from trained observers, she is suffering.
When I think of Lucy’s story, I cannot help but think of the famous Albert Schweitzer quote “Think occasionally of the suffering of which you spare yourself the sight.” So I ask you, on behalf of Lucy, to take a moment and look a little closer at her story.
Visit: http://www.savelucy.ca/ and http://www.zoocheck.com/
Valerie Williams is the editor of GreenMuze.com with a soft spot for animal stories.
written by Delaine M. , September 23, 2010
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