On September 25, Santa Barbara's last Asian Elephant, Little Mac, was euthanized at 48 years old, surrounded by her zoo keepers and caretakers saying their final farewells. Little Mac was put down due to a sharp decline in her own health, with multiple medical problems affecting her health, behavior and overall well being. Though the zoo attempted to aid Little Mac back to her healthy self, at 48 years old, it seemed as though it was simply her time to go. So after struggling with her health for several days, the zoo decided to euthanize her. Numerous care takers of Little Mac surrounded their beloved elephant, more than likely with teary eyes to say goodbye to the animal they had helped raise throughout the years. With their last elephant gone, the Santa Barbara Zoo with be permanently closing their elephant exhibit.
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Do you think the Zoo did the Humane thing Euthanizing Little Mac? What are your thoughts on euthanizing animals?
I do think that the zoo did the right thing by letting their elephant go. She was clearly old and unwell, and I feel like it would have been selfish to try and keep her living just to have their customers watch and stare at her declining health. I think that euthanizing a living thing no matter what it is is difficult. Whether it be a dog, cat, parrot, or even elephant. But even though it is difficult doesn't make it the wrong thing to do. If the animal is suffering and it already has one foot in the grave, than I believe the humane thing to do is to put the animal down if it has no chance of recovering.
Do you think that Little Mac being held in captivity assisted in the declining of her health?
I think that this could always be a factor. especially with the fact that Little Mac was the last elephant at the zoo. Elephants are very emotional and social animals so I wonder how emotionally healthy this animal was. However, most zoos treat their animals very well, and there are plenty of laws assuring this. In fact, the life expectancy of an Asian Elephant is roughly 41 years. With Little Mac passing at the age of 48, does this mean that perhaps she was even better taken care of in captivity than she would be in the wild?
Replies
Well done Macey!
I think that the zoo keepers are experts about animals, and are qualitfed to do what is best for their animals. I do think it was the right thing for them to do was to put the elephant down. If the elephant was suffereing from heath problems you have to do what is best for it.
I think they did do the right think because it would better to put the animal down peacfully than to just let it suffer and hope it gets better, most of the time euthanizing animals would be the way I would like to do it because killing aniamls would be hard but doesn't mean its bad. It depends on how the exibits for the elephants was if it affected their health because if they had a nice open area with good food and good contions for an elephant it might not have been the cause but since we don't know how they would have taken care of them on the time.
Yeah, I really don't think that it was the zoo's fault that Little Mac had to be put down. She was just a very old animal, especially for her breed, and that is something that can not be helped. In fact, I think that the fact that Little Mac lived longer than her species usually does proves that the zoo was doing everything they could to make her life comfortable.
I believe that Little Mac being held in captivity did not assist in the declining of her health because, Little Mac has been in that zoo for years so she is used to that place. This place is her home and she is used to all the care takers and they probably calm her down if anything because she knows that they won't hurt her.
I suppose tht is true... this entire time I have been thinking that maybe she was depressed because she was lonely being the only one of her kind. But now that you mention it, with all of her caretakers and zookeepers, I'm sure the attention she received from them was enough to get her by. She did live 6 years past her breeds normal lifespan afterall.
1. I think that is was the right thing to do because LIttle Mac had probably been suffering for many days and they were tired of seeing Little Mac struggling to stay alive.
2.I thik that this could be a cause because keeping a natural wildlife animal captive is not good at all.
I believe it was the humane thing to euthanize the elephant because there is no reason to let the thing suffer till it dies. However, this makes it smart to euthanize the elephant to put it out of it's memory. They tried all they could to make it so the elephant could be healthy again however, it didn't work so they did the best thing for it.
I think that the zoo did the right thing by euthanizing Little Mac because she was very old and not doing well. I would rather have the elephant die peacefully than have it live and suffer just so people can look at it. She lived a long good life and she deserved to go peacefully.
I think if there was anything more that the zoo could have done to bring Little Mac to health, they would have done so. However, animals get old and ill, and eventually have to pass on as well. I think the euthanization of animals is a good thing to have around. If the animal is in severe pain and is going to die anyway, I would want the animal to pass off peacefully. I do not think that Little Mac being held in captivity assisted in the decline of her health. I think that she was simply getting old and her body was beginning to shut down.
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