lucy the elephant
alone in Edmonton!

Nearly all of Lucy’s life has been spent shuffling around the Edmonton Valley Zoo’s tiny elephant yard. She stands stationary much of the time, sometimes rocking back and forth, and has numerous ongoing health issues.

She wasn’t always alone. Until last September, a female African elephant named Samantha shared her small enclosure. Samantha was shipped off to another zoo on a long-term breeding loan and may never return.

Elephants are among the most social of all animals. In the wild, a female elephant spends her entire life, day and night, in contact with other elephants.

The Valley Zoo says Lucy is fine where she is and that she has bonded with her keepers. They say the zoo is all she knows and that it wouldn't be in her best interest for her to leave.

But the constant 24 hour a day social contact, that wild elephants experience with their families cannot be replicated by staff at the Valley Zoo. They are not a substitute for a family or herd.

Think about it. Keepers go home at the end of their shift. And when they do, Lucy is left alone in her Spartan indoor facility until the next morning. Elephant families don’t disband in the late afternoon and then reassemble the next morning. They are together all the time. Lucy’s keepers are not a stand-in for a real elephant family.

It’s true that the elephant yard and barn at the Valley Zoo is probably all Lucy has ever known. But that’s probably the most compelling reason for her to go elsewhere.

Denying Lucy a better life just because she’s only known the Valley Zoo doesn’t make sense. In fact, it's a terrible reason for her to spend the rest of her life in solitary confinement in the zoo’s Spartan conditions.

Recently, the zoo has also said Lucy has an infection that makes it too dangerous for her to travel.

Lucy has many health issues, but it's difficult to imagine that her health wouldn't improve if she were moved to a better situation. Her living conditions and lack of activity, coupled with the frustration and stress of being alone, must be having a severely negative effect.

In a more stimulating, naturalistic environment Lucy would be able to act more like an elephant. She’d be more active, her fitness would get better, her immune system would get stronger and her mental state would improve.

If the history of elephants in zoos is any indication, then the odds are against Lucy if she remains where she is. Foot and bone infections are two of the biggest killers of elephants in North American zoos. And most of the elephants who die from them aren’t very old.

The path ahead is clear. Lucy must be sent to a better facility in a warmer climate where she has room to roam and the company of other elephants. Halfway measures won’t make a difference. She has to go.

If Lucy stays at the Edmonton Valley Zoo, there’s not a lot that can be done to substantially raise her quality of life, or even to make it tolerable, over the long-term. The space is just too small, the climate is wrong and there are no other elephants.

There are facilities willing to provide a home to Lucy. The zoo just needs to say yes.

For more information on Lucy's plight, click here.

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