- San Diego Zoo
- Connie (center) and Shaba (left)
The subject of a great deal of controversy last year, Connie, one of the two elephants sent to San Diego as part of the preparations for the new elephant exhibit at the Reid Park Zoo, was euthanized today.
From the San Diego Zoo’s blog on Connie’s health:
Since her arrival in San Diego in February 2012, veterinarians, technicians, keepers, and managers have worked extensively with Connie to manage her health concerns. We saw improvements, but this time the response was not the same. Over the last couple of weeks, her condition continued to deteriorate and severely affect her quality of life. She was drinking about 1.5 gallons of water when she needs 75 gallons daily to live. Connie’s immune and organ systems simply were not keeping up with her disease. This morning, we made the heartbreaking decision to euthanize her when it became apparent that Connie would be unable to sustain herself. We know many of you will share in our loss as we say goodbye to Connie and hope that you know she will be greatly missed.
Mayor Jonathan Rothschild released a comment on Connie’s passing in a press release:
“I was saddened to learn of Connie’s passing today, both for Connie and for Shaba, her companion,” said Mayor Rothschild. “I am confident that Connie received the best of care at San Diego’s geriatric elephant facility. We knew this day would come. Connie was elderly, and that was why this facility was chosen. It is sad that it has come so soon.”
This article appears in Jul 19-25, 2012.
I think Connie should be returned to Tucson and buried in Reid Park with a fitting memorial. So many of us grew up with her.
I’m livid over the stupidity of the Reid Zoo “experts”. Those elephants should never have been moved. Next we’ll read about Shaba’s “poor health” and demise.
Shameful. Elephant poop to all those involved.
this was totally predictable but that doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking. she should have been allowed to pass here, where she made her home for so many decades.
How old was Connie? I remember her from when I was a small child. RIP Connie, Reid Park will never be the same without you!
An elderly person would not have been moved at such a late stage in life, or in a deteriorating state of health. It’s like telling a 78-year old they can’t have anything decent to eat anymore because it’s not good for them, or that he/she has to move out of a place they called “home” for 45 years. It should not have happened.
Tim Vanderpool covered this whole charade relentlessly and the Reid Park Zoo continued to evade, lie and concoct facts, especially with the tax-paying public. Shame on them! Bravo, though, to Tim and The Weekly for at least attempting to reveal the sad truth, and one tragic event, which many biologists had predicted would occur with the elephant move.
How naive of the mayor to think that Connie would get the best care at SDZ. That zoo has everyone fooled, but those who know their past history of euthanizations are not surprised. They were not going to keep Connie & Shaba together. The suits had Cookie & ChaCha “euthanized” to make room (it was a big surprise to the keepers when they arrived in the morning) in that awful Elephant Odyssey yard which way to small for all those elephants (they live in small paddocks on hard surfaces) many who do not get along. It was not the move that killed Connie, it was her not being able to walk around, not being on soft ground to help her feet as found in the pastures of sanctuaries, not the hard packed substrate or concrete of zoos. Unfortunately the paper would not pay for an investigative reporter to delve into the bad zoo yards and immoral occurrences at San Diego before the Connie & Shaba were sacrificed for the surplus Africans (from immoral breeding, another nasty subject).
As Deborah Nelson, a Pulitzer winner, wrote and exposed Ringling for the nasty business it is in “The Cruelest Show on Earth,” so too will it take a thorough investigator to unravel the convoluted hoax that are AZA zoos. The AZA is first of all an animal broker/trader. They are like slave traders and as with all masters they claim to take good care of their slaves, kind people fall for it but it is a lie. Their animals are mere property off of which to make money. They can always kidnap more out of the wild or breed them (and don’t buy their lie that it is for conservation, it is for money, especially in the case of elephants). With the popularity of sanctuaries and their ability to heal elephants which cannot be healed in zoos because of the cramped spaces and hard surfaces (and that includes Tucson’s paltry few acres in the new exhibit), the AZA is on the warpath to be sure NO elephants go to either of the two true sanctuaries in the US (Performing Animal Welfare Society, PAWS and The Elephant Sanctuary, TES). Tucson fell for their falsities and now there is one dead elephant and the other very unhappy.
Do the right thing Tucson – INSIST Shaba go to PAWS, where she and Connie should have gone in the first place to walk to their heart’s content on the healing soft earth. This is one instance where the zoo may have to cave – there is too much suspicious behavior. And the one thing the AZA and the zoo would not want is the truth in print in this highly charged political football of who gets to keep the elephant. The AZA will do everything it can to be sure no more elephants go to sanctuaries, as the scandal that has been going on with the Toronto Zoo elephants and a signed contract with PAWS and lots of sabotage to prevent the move. The proof is in the pudding, they would (alledgedly) rather see elephants dead than happy and healing.
To those who think that a zoo, any zoo, is a home to an elephant, know that it is not. The elephants had no choice in the matter. They would choose space and being able to walk for miles any day for being on display with no privacy and screaming kids 12/7, not to mention their feed rotting on hard surfaces. It is only humans who do not understand elephants needs who are sentimental that any zoo could be termed a home. It’s a prison. As Dame Daphne Sheldrick says of zoo elephants, “You are not seeing an elephant, you are seeing a tragedy.”
You “Bastards” you killed Connie.
The IDIOTS at Greed Park Zoo were warned about separating Connie and Shaba and that the consequences would be deadly for Connie but those zoo a$$WIPES have their heads up their rectums and refused to listen to intelligent researchers who predicted the outcome of this travesty. I blame the death of Connie on the hard-headed bitches that run the zoo and I curse them and their progeny.
If the people attending Connie at the San Diego zoo realized that Connie was not eating and drinking as before why didn’t they re-unite Connnie and Shaba? Sometimes the Idiocy of the professionals should be brought into question. For their laissez-faire attitudes I consider the San Diego and Reid Park Zoo officials as nothing but blatant MURDERERS.