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Well, the word is finally out -- Maggie will be moved to PAWS (Performing Animal Welfare Society)!

It would be nice if we all sent a quick thank you note to the Alaska Zoo for doing the right thing.   I know that many of you got personally involved and wrote to the zoo during the effort to remove her.  I am confident that the decision to part with Maggie after all these years was difficult for  Alaska Zoo, but they did it. 

The next few months will be critical for Maggie.  She must be moved safely to PAWS and integrated into the group of other African elephants.  There can be great risks in these processes.  Maggie will be taken out of her compound for the first time in many years, put into a crate, loaded onto a truck to the airport, then loaded onto the plane and off at another airport, transferred to another truck, and finally off-loaded at the sanctuary.  At PAWS the whole world will be new to Maggie.  As wonderful as we all know that this sanctuary is, – it will be scary to her.  Grass, trees, ponds, elephants, caregivers, food, daily routines – all different than what she has experienced in her past life!   It will not be a matter of simply putting her on a plane and dumping her out into a field with a bunch of elephants.

Getting Maggie to PAWS will be a matter of crate training her and making her feel comfortable in the crate. When the actual move will take place will depend on how well acclimated she is to the crate.  Of course, prior to constructing the crate, an aircraft large enough to accommodate it will have to be chosen. The crate cannot be too large due to the risk of her getting stuck on her side and not being able to right herself, but it does need to be large enough to accommodate her size.  The crate certainly must be constructed to prevent Maggie from using her trunk to dismantle the plane (like hydraulic lines etc.).  The actual configuration and size of the crate can only be determined by those experts who are evaluating both the plane and Maggie. 

The logistics at both ends are critical to the move.  Making arrangements for trucks, forklifts, personnel, clearance for expediting the aircraft, weather reports, road clearance, weight of crate (with elephant inside), handling of media, contingency plans should there be a hitch somewhere, etc., all must be considered.

Once Maggie is at PAWS, the frenetic pace will slow considerably but the decisions made will be no less critical to her well-being.  Working at her pace is the key – not rushing forth with any changes and giving her choices will become the duty of the caregivers at PAWS.   I am confident that both Pat Derby and Ed Stewart will carefully consider any action before it is presented to Maggie – thus minimizing her adverse reaction to these changes.

I believe that the Alaska Zoo’s decision to send Maggie to PAWS has afforded her the best possible alternative for the rest of her life.  Despite the inherent risks in moving her, at PAWS Maggie will have the best possible opportunity to become a social elephant, doing elephant things, in an elephant environment.  It ain’t Africa but it’s as close as she can get!

I want to commend the visionaries.  Without places like PAWS and The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee (TES), elephants like Maggie would have nowhere to go except for the old-style environments zoos are continuing to build.  Thanks to two people with both compassion and a vision -- Carol Buckley of TES and Pat Derby of PAWS – Maggie and others have somewhere better to go!  Both of these facilities have raised the bar for captive elephant husbandry.  All of us need to actively support these two wonderful places. 

The other visionaries are the folks who worked tirelessly, both with finances and great personal effort to make this happen. Bob Barker and Elliot Katz of In Defense of Animals (IDA) (and his supporters) are certainly among these leaders.  I also must include Gretchen Wyler in this group even though we lost her earlier this year.

My hat is also off to the Friends of Maggie group in Anchorage, who never gave up, even after hitting the wall so many times.  This group, as well as the legions of folks out there who wrote, watched, chatted on line about Maggie, visited her, and basically kept the fires burning, are the heart and soul of the campaign to improve the quality of life of Maggie and other captive elephants. 

Lastly I wish to thank the  Alaska Zoo for doing the right thing and sending Maggie to PAWS.  Public acceptance of the conditions for elephants in captivity is changing and the Alaska Zoo folks were sensitive enough to realize it!