Ailing elephant euthanized at Los Angeles Zoo
LOS ANGELES — A 53-year-old Asian elephant has been euthanized at the Los Angeles Zoo after she was unable to stand up, the zoo announced Thursday.
Shaunzi, one of two female elephants at the zoo, was discovered unable to stand Tuesday night after she went down in the yard of her exhibit space.
“Animal care staff and zoo veterinarians responded quickly and worked through the night to help Shaunzi up. Despite the use of all resources and personnel available, the extraordinary efforts were ultimately unsuccessful,” a zoo statement said.
A “heartbreaking” decision was made to sedate and euthanize the animal on Wednesday, the statement said.
It wasn’t clear why the elephant couldn’t stand up, and a necropsy was planned, zoo spokesman Carl Myers said.
Born in Thailand, Shaunzi spent her youth in a circus, came to the Fresno Chaffee Zoo in 1983 and was sent to the Los Angeles Zoo in 2017.
The median life expectancy of female Asian elephants in human care has been estimated by various zoos, researchers and conservation groups as around 40 to 50 years. Elephants in the wild can live decades longer.
Asian elephants are considered endangered, and only about 40,000 of them remain in the wild. They are threatened by destruction of their habitat and by poachers who kill them for their tusks.
“Shaunzi lived a full life and was an ambassador for her species. She helped Angelenos learn about her wild counterparts and the challenges they face in their native range,” the zoo said.
SACRAMENTO — Prosecutors have decided to only charge the father of a 10-year-old boy in connection with the death of a child the boy allegedly shot.
The decision on charges in the fatal shooting Saturday outside Sacramento was announced during the father’s court appearance Wednesday.
In an email Thursday to The Associated Press, the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said it told the court that “based on the facts currently known, the sole criminal liability and responsibility for the child’s death lays exclusively with this Defendant.” The AP generally does not identify juveniles involved in crimes. The father’s name is being withheld to avoid identifying his son.
The Sacramento Bee reported that an attorney entered not guilty pleas on behalf of the 53-year-old defendant to charges of having a firearm that a child could easily access, leading to the death of another minor; two counts of child endangerment; having a firearm as a felon; having ammunition when prohibited from doing so; and destroying evidence.
Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies answering a shooting report in unincorporated Foothill Farms found victim Keith Frierson, also 10, in a parking lot and he was later pronounced dead at a hospital, the Sheriff’s Office said.
The Sacramento Bee reported that the boy was accused of shooting Frierson after losing a bike race in the townhome complex where the boys lived.
According to the Sheriff’s Office statement, the defendant’s son had gone out to his father’s truck to get him cigarettes, found the loaded gun, “bragged that his father had a gun,” and then shot the victim once. The father allegedly threw the gun into a trash can.