Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Maggie the Elephant, Update

Just a quick update on Maggie the Elephant, subject of a August post. Maggie had lived a solitary life at The Alaska Zoo in Anchorage. An African elephant, Maggie's isolation was especially sad as it is natural for female African (and Asian) elephants to live with a female herd. Maggie also had serious health problems caused or exacerbated by her confinement and Alaskan weather.

Inn mid-September, The Alaska Zoo Board of Directors approved of 'retiring' Maggie to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in California, thanks to the great financial generosity of animal rights/welfare activist (and former TV game show host) Bob Barker. Thanks, Bob!

On November 2, Maggie arrived at the PAWS elephant sanctuary.

"Founded in 1984, by former Hollywood animal trainer and author, Pat Derby, and her partner, Ed Stewart, PAWS maintains three sanctuaries for captive wildlife - 30 acres in Galt, California, 100 acres (The Amanda Blake Wildlife Refuge) in Herald, California and 2,300 acres of pristine, natural habitat (ARK 2000) in San Andreas, California." Visit the PAWS site and check out their animal-cams.

Bob Barker is also founder of The DJ&T Foundation, a nonprofit that subsidizes the cost of spaying and neutering of pets.

Trivia: Bob Barker grew up on Rosebud Indian reservation in South Dakota (his mom was a schoolteacher there).

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