San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
PAWS euthanizes longtime S.F. Zoo elephant Lulu
Lulu, who at 58 years old was North America’s oldest African elephant and spent nearly 40 years of her life at San Francisco Zoo, has died.
Officials with the Performing Animal Welfare Society Wildlife Sanctuary in San Andreas (Calaveras County), where Lulu lived since 2005, said the elephant was euthanized on Tuesday after suffering from degenerative joint disease. She was transferred from the San Francisco Zoo to the sanctuary when the zoo discontinued its elephant exhibit, according to PAWS.
PAWS has operated its 2,300-acre sanctuary in San Andreas since 1984 and provides care to captive animals that were rescued or retired from circuses, zoos and exotic pet trade, officials said. On Monday, the sanctuary welcomed a tiger cub with severe bone disease that was rescued by the Oakland Zoo from a private owner.
It was at the sanctuary that Lulu had access to a large enclosure that allowed her to behave naturally, and in her later years developed a close bond with another elephant named Toka, according to PAWS.
Born in Eswatini in Southern Africa, Lulu was likely captured when her mother was killed in a government cull, or selective slaughter, according to PAWS officials. While most 2-year-old elephant calves spend the majority of their time with their mother, when Lulu was 2, she was sold to be a display animal, according to PAWS.
“We are humbled that the people of San Francisco entrusted Lulu to PAWS for 19 years,” said PAWS cofounder and President Ed Stewart. “We did our very best for her. Until her health recently took a turn for the worse, Lulu enjoyed climbing to the tops of hills to graze on fresh green grass.”
Although the society acknowledged African elephants can live until their 60s, they added that when Lulu arrived at the sanctuary she was already older than the average age for female African elephants living in zoos.
“Lulu’s age was truly exceptional for an African elephant in captivity, where the stresses and unnatural conditions of their confinement mean that elephants tend to live much shorter lives than do elephants in the wild,” said PAWS CEO Chris Draper. “Separation from their wild families, years spent on display in inappropriate conditions, and suffering from physical problems prevalent in captivity, yet almost absent in wild populations, take a heavy toll on captive elephants.”
The sanctuary said it cares for six other elephants.